Kishorechandra vows to continue fight for justice, calls AMWJU 'toothless'

IMPHAL: Kishorchandra Wangkhem, who has been detained under NSA, on Saturday vowed to continue his fight for justice till the end and even take it to the High Court or Supreme Court of India even as he slammed the All Manipur Working Journalists’ Union (AMWJU) for being ‘toothless’.

Brought to the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) Hospital earlier in the morning for routine medical check-up, the NSA detainee said his detention was arbitrary and all allegations against him baseless.

“My detention under NSA is arbitrary. The allegation levelled against me is baseless, they are trying to stop me from raising my voice against the government,” the former anchor of ISTV said.

“I will fight till my last breath at the High Court or the Supreme Court to get justice,” he added.

Kishorchandra also slammed the All Manipur Working Journalists’ Union (AMWJU) for stating that he was not a journalist.

“I consider AMWJU toothless union. They stated that I am not a journalist, that I am not a bonafide member of AMWJU and that is a lie,” the detained journalist said as he was being taken away by security forces at the JNIMS Hospital.

“AMWU works for the government and there is nothing surprise in that,” he added.

On Friday, the AMWJU had written to the Indian Journalists’ Union (IJU) urging it not to publish any press statement on Kishorechandra’s detention.

In the letter, AMWJU wrote that “....Kishorechandra is/was not a member of AMWJU. He is/was not a journalist in the real sense. He was just a news reader and translator on the ISTV News. Working for the ISTV as a news anchor and translator was a front for his main profession of being the master of ceremony/compare at public functions. So far, he has not written a single article or editorial or comment on his political ideology or concerns in the newspapers published in or outside the State.”

And with regards to the action of Kishorchandra and his arrest and detention thereof, the AMWJU wrote “The EGM (Editors’ Guild, Manipur) knows very well what Kishorechandra did was to the total opposite of AMWJU’s principles and not a bit ethical as far as the profession is concerned.”

Following a series of videos and updates on social media where he criticised the BJP-led Manipur government, especially for observing Rani of Jhansi’s birth anniversary in Imphal, Kishorchandra was arrested on November 20. In the said videos, which went viral on the social media, the journalist while abusing CM Biren and the government and calling him a ‘Puppet’ of PM Modi also challenged the CM to arrest him.

However, produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Imphal West, he was released on bail on November 26. However, he was arrested again the very next day, i.e. November 27 and on December 14, the state government released an order to detain Kishorchandra under the NSA for one year following the approval of the NSA advisory board.

Kishorchandra also slammed the Manipur Central Jail SP, S. Touthang stating that the jailer gave a half-cook story to the media about the detainee’s supposed-to-be-meeting with his counsel, Shreeji Bhavsar, advocate of the SC of India.

The advocate alleged that he and the detainee’s wife Ranjita had gone to Sajiwa Jail on Thursday to meet the Manipuri journalist but even after waiting for three hours, he was not given permission by the jail authorities to meet his client.

However, as per reports, SP Touthang said that the advocate had left before they were yet to complete the formalities for the meeting.

Refuting the statement of the Jailer, Kishorchandra stated that the SP has been telling to media was a half cooked sugar coated story.

“If you want to see the realities come and stay with me at the Jail just for one day and you will know the truth”, he said.

Strongly hitting out at the government again, the NSA detainee said that if one cannot say anything against the government, then, it shows that there is no democracy in the land.

“Arresting me under NSA for speaking against the government should be appropriate only in the times of Hitler,” Kishorchandra said.

Source :- TMB Report