Our Correspondent
SENAPATI, December 5
A 23 year old student from Purul village, Senapati district who was reported missing from the running train (in between Andhra Pradesh and Bangalore) on November 29, was found dead and his dead body was evacuated to capital Hospital Bhubaneswar in Odisha.
The deceased family in Senapati district however claimed that he could have been pushed out of the running train by some ‘goons’. According to family sources, L Poumai presently residing in Khabung Karong village in Senapati, boarded Dibrugarh-Bangalore City Express from Dimapur on the night of November 27 for Bangalore.
“He made a distress call to his family members in Manipur at around 3 pm on November 29, complaining that 5 persons had threatened him and even said that they got angry even on seeing his face. He last spoke to his elder brother Stephen at 4.55 pm on that day. He told him that he was not even allowed to move by the gang of 5 people, and his mobile phone was switched off thereafter,” sources said. When the train arrived at Bangalore on November 30, Poumai was found missing. An FIR was filed at Bangalore Railway Police Station on December 1 and investigation was initiated by the police.
While waiting for Bangalore police first update on the incident, president of Poumai Students’ Union Bangalore received a phone call on December 3 evening that L Poumai had died and was asked him to claim the dead body from Capital Hospital Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, the sources said.
Meanwhile, police claimed that the youth had committed suicide by hanging. On the other hand local news reports on December 2 claimed that the victim was found on November 29 after jumping off a train and admitted to a hospital with minor injuries but he escaped from the hospital on December 1 and killed himself by hanging himself with his shirt tied to the branch of a guava tree inside the compound of a government official. A couple spotted him during a morning walk and alerted the police.
Terming the incident as a “hate crime”, the victim’s family claimed that L Poumai died after being pushed off from the running train after robbing off all his belongings, including his mobile phone. They claimed that authorities are trying to cover up the brutal crime with fabricated stories, questioning why authorities took almost five days to inform them of the incident. They also alleged that there could have been a ploy to cover up the inhuman act. The matter has been appraised to the state government of Manipur to bring justice into the incident.
