Manipur: Cash, jewellery, relief items looted from MLA's residence by mob

Imphal, Nov 21 (IANS): A mob vandalised a Manipur MLA's residence and also looted Rs 18 lakh cash, and jewellery items worth Rs 1.5 crore from there, police said on Thursday.

A police official said that the mother of Janata Dal-United MLA Khumukcham Joykishan Singh has lodged a complaint at the Imphal Police Station alleging that Rs 18 lakh in cash and jewellery items worth Rs 1.5 crore were looted by a mob that vandalised the legislator's residence on November 16.

As per the FIR, many other items kept at Singh's residence in West Imphal district's Thangmeiband area for displaced people sheltered in relief camps were also destroyed during the attack, the official said.

On the day of the attack, the MLA was in Delhi in connection with medical treatment for one of his family members.

A relief camp was set up at the Tombisana Higher Secondary School at Thangmeiband a few metres away from the MLA’s residence.

Relief materials, including potatoes, onions, and other items as well as winter clothes for the relief camp have been stored in the MLA’s residence.

"Most of the relief materials were either looted or destroyed by the mobs. Lockers, electronics items and furniture were also damaged. Seven gas cylinders were also taken away by the mob,” the police official said quoting the MLA’s mother.

The official said that the attackers also damaged many documents of the relief camp inmates.

During the widespread violence on November 16 and 17, more than a dozen houses and bungalows of several ministers, legislators and political leaders were also attacked in a few districts, especially in Imphal West, Imphal East and Jiribam. The mob violence occurred following the recovery of six bodies of three missing children and three women in the Jiribam district on November 15 and 16. The three women and three children belonging to the Meitei community had been kidnapped by suspected militants on November 11 in Jiribam district following an encounter between security forces and suspected Kuki-Zo militants that resulted in the deaths of 10 extremists on the same day.