Soshim Keishing, an UPSC aspirant from Kumram village, Kamjong District currently residing in Rayotang, Ukhrul District was beaten black and blue by the local authorities of Rayotang, Ukhrul.
According to one of the victim’s younger brother, who requested not to be named, said that his brother along with another fellow UPSC aspirant went to ask for a travel pass from the local authorities at Rayotang to travel down to Imphal to appear UPSC exams.
Upon being told that the pass would cost 50 rupees, the two students enquired why they were being charged and if the local authorities could exempt them the pass fees since they were students and not businessmen going down for business. The Rayotang authorities, however, demanded that they pay to which the two students reluctantly paid but not without an argument between the two parties before getting the necessary pass and proceeded for home.
“My brother had returned home when the secretary called him through the phone and asked him to come to the office again. He told the secretary that he had to study for his exams and he wasn’t interested in taking the argument any further. This was when the secretary took this personally and started berating and framing my brother for disrespecting the local authorities. My brother responded by asking the secretary if he was bluffing him and agreed to meet him at the house of one of the committee members,” said Soshim’s brother who didn’t want to be named.
The two parties reportedly met and the argument reportedly got much more heated than before and the student was allegedly taken to the locality’s community hall. The younger brother accompanied Soshim to the community hall and there too, Soshim repeated his stance by saying he just “asked for concession since he was a student and not a businessmen”.
It is reported, however, that the local authorities took this personally and framed him saying it was an act of disrespect towards the local authorities and revolt against the locality. Upon further interrogation, on learning that the student was a tenant in the locality and not a Shimva (local), the authorities reportedly took advantage of the situation and framed him further, demanding an apology.
“My brother refused to apologise saying he hadn’t done anything wrong and there and then the local authorities charged my brother for going against the locality’s constitution and demanded that we pack our belongings and leave the locality within three days,” said the victim’s brother.
The ordeal, according to other source didn’t end there, however, as the student, though having not retaliated to the demand to vacate was handed over to the locality’s action committee and beaten black and blue.
“After that they took him into a room and beat him and I wasn’t allowed in and was helpless as my brother got beaten mercilessly for something he didn’t do any wrong.” said the younger brother speaking to Ukhrul Times.
Soshim is currently hospitalised in District Hospital, on oxygen, having passed out after the brute excessive beating from the local authorities.
