Manipur: Tribal body urges govt employees to refrain from going to office over cop's suspension
Imphal (PTI): The Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) has urged government employees in Manipur's Churachandpur district to refrain from attending work from Monday over the suspension of a head constable who was allegedly seen with armed men in a video grab.
The tribal outfit has made the call to press for its demand for the revocation of the suspension of head constable Siamlalpaul and "immediate replacement" of Superintendent of Police Shivanand Surve and Deputy Commissioner Dharun Kumar.
At least two people were killed and 30 injured in firing by security forces after a mob barged into a government complex housing the SP and DC offices, torched vehicles and ransacked government property in Churachandpur, hours after the suspension of the head constable on February 15.
"More than 24 hours have passed since the ITLF gave an ultimatum to cancel the suspension order of head constable Siamlalpaul and replace Churachandpur SP and DC but so far, no cancellation or replacement has been done," the outfit said in a statement.
"State government employees should refrain from going to office... it will be their sole responsibility if any untoward incident happens," it added.
Head constable Siamlalpaul was kept "under suspension with immediate effect until further orders" after a video of him with "armed men" and "sitting together with village volunteers" went viral on social media.
"This tantamount to very grave misconduct being a member of the disciplined police force," a police order said.
"A departmental inquiry is being contemplated against Siamlalpaul of Churachandpur district police, as a clip has gone viral on social media showing him making a video with armed men on February 14," the order stated.
Siamlalpaul has been asked not to "leave the station without prior permission" and "his pay and allowances have been restricted to subsistence allowance admissible as per the rules", it said.
Chief Minister N Biren Singh has condemned the violence and said that an FIR has been lodged against one person for threatening to kill the SP and that the damaged DC bungalow was being repaired.
He questioned the motive behind the violence, suggesting a hidden agenda, while asserting that all government records were safe.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
