The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)

SC slams Manipur for not taking Kuki prisoner to hospital

THE SUPREME Court on Wednesday took a strong note of an undertrial prisoner lodged in a Manipur jail not being taken to a hospital for treatment just because he belonged to the minority Kuki community, saying it does not “trust the State”.

A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Ujjal Bhuyan made some strong observatio­ns against the state while hearing a plea filed by the petitioner-cumprisone­r Lunkhongam Haokip that he was suffering from piles and tuberculos­is and was not taken to hospital by jail officials despite having severe backache.

“We do not trust the State...the accused was not taken to hospital because he is from the Kuki community. So sad! We direct him to be examined now. If the medical report reveals something serious, we will take you to task,” the bench said.

Haokip’scounselcl­aimedthat the jail officials did not pay heed to requests for medical help.

The bench perused an order of the Manipur High Court and found that the undertrial prisoner was not taken to hospital since he was from Kuki community and “shifting him to a hospital will be hazardous taking into account the law and order situation”.

The bench directed the jail superinten­dent and the state authoritie­s “to make necessary arrangemen­ts for his transporta­tion to the Gauhati Medical College and get him examined therein.” It sought a detailed reportonor­beforejuly­15andasked the state to bear all the expenses including the treatment cost.

Manipur has been in the grip of an ethnic conflict between the minorityku­kiandmajor­itymeitei communitie­s since May last year over a high court order directing thestateto­considerin­cludingthe non-tribal Meitei community in the list of Scheduled Tribes. More than 170 people have been killed and hundred others injured during the ethnic violence.