Mob sets Central minister's house on fire in Imphal
Darpan News Desk IANS, 16 Jun, 2023 01:08 PM
Imphal, June 16 (IANS) Violating curfew, a mob vandalised and set ablaze Union Minister of State for External Affairs Rajkumar Ranjan Singh's house in Imphal town of Manipur, officials said on Friday.
According to police officials, a mob of 200 men and women attacked the Central Minister's residence late Thursday night. Singh, who is also the Minister of state for Education, is currently in Delhi.
Though a portion of the minister's house got burnt, the security guards and firefighters managed to control the arson and saved most parts of the minister's house from being burnt down.
The incident took place after the burning of two more houses belonging to locals and clashes between the Rapid Action Force of Manipur and a mob in the heart of Imphal town the same afternoon.
The mob which roamed the capital city also clashed with security forces in different places.
Singh's house was also targetted on May 25 when thousands of people attempted to assemble in front of the residence of the Central Minister in Imphal but the security forces prevented them from doing so.
Police said the mob, comprising men and women, demanded an early solution to the ethnic conflict between Meitei and Kuki communities.
The mob accused all the ministers and MLAs that they are not doing enough to end the Manipur crisis.
On Wednesday, assailants burnt the official residence of Manipur's Industry Minister Nemcha Kipgen in the Lamphel area in Imphal West district.
The officials said that Kipgen, the lone woman minister in Manipur, was not at home when the attackers burnt down her official bungalow.
Her statement comes after she was dragged by a man when she had gone for an inspection at AIIMS in the early hours of January 19. The man had started making lewd and vulgar gestures towards Maliwal and she was reprimanding him when he asked her to sit in his car, the man suddenly pulled the car glass up and hand of Maliwal got stuck in car's window,
The incident occurred on November 26 last year when the drunk passenger allegedly urinated on a co-passenger in her 70s in the business class of an Air India flight from New York to Delhi. Aviation regulator DGCA on January 5 had said that the conduct of Air India was unprofessional and has led to a systemic failure.
In a surprise move, the Uttar Pradesh government, on Thursday, opposed the bail plea of Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra's son, who is one of the accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, in the Supreme Court. Additional Advocate General for Uttar Pradesh Garima Prasad told a bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice J.K. Maheshwari that the crime is "grave".
Last year in June, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea filed by Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, challenging a clean chit given by the Special Investigation Team to then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and several others in the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Rahul Gandhi, in an open letter addressing the people, alleged that the AAP government in Punjab seems unable to tackle the challenges. The Bharat Jodo Yatra which is being led by the former Congress president completed its eighth day in Punjab on Thursday.
After six days in Punjab, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra on Wednesday entered Himachal Pradesh where Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and state party President Pratibha Singh, among other party leaders, welcomed the day-long leg of the march in the state.
