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CBI in Manipur: Key to murder probe is mystery man who used male victim’s mobile
The CBI team will have to trace a man, identified in police records as Lhingneichong, resident of Ingoruk in Lamdan area
A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team led by the agency’s special director Ajay Bhatnagar is set to reach Imphal in a special flight before noon to probe the murder of the two Meitei students whose supposed death has triggered fresh round of protests in the state.
The CBI team has their task cut out, officials said on Tuesday night, just as news of the CBI team’s visit to Manipur was announced.
The CBI team will have to trace a man, identified in police records as Lhingneichong, resident of Ingoruk in Lamdan area.
The Lamdan resident could provide the federal agency with the first breakthrough on the alleged murder of the two Meitei students. The two students were allegedly kidnapped by Kuki militants on July 6, police have said.
A day after the two — Phijam Hemanjit Singh(20) and the 17-year-old girl - went missing, their phones were switched on once on the morning of July 7.
A new SIM card under the name of Lhingneichong, resident of Lamdan, was found to be inserted in Singh’s phone.
The phone has been switched on and off several times since. Manipur police got the man’s name and address after checking the details submitted for the new SIM card to be activated.
Also Read: Manipur: Photos of bodies of missing girl, man apparently decapitated go viral
Lingneichong’s last location -- based on the SIM card inserted into the missing student’s phone -- was last traced to the ‘winter flower’ tourist spot at Lamdan but police have so far not been to visit the location because of the “law and order situation” in the area.
Lamdan is in the Churachandpur district which is predominantly occupied by the Kuki community. Meiteis in Manipur mostly live in the valley areas such as Imphal.
“Once the owner of the new SIM card is arrested, he will tell CBI details of the place where the bodies were disposed. The arrest will at least calm tempers in Imphal where protests have erupted. There were reports that students would come to the streets, like they did on Tuesday, so the order to shut all schools till tomorrow was issued,” said a senior official aware of the developments in Manipur.
While the bodies of Singh and the minor girl are yet to be found, a police report said the two were murdered on different dates, most likely on July 8 and July 11, and their bodies buried at a place near Lukhrabi Yumpham where Manipur police were unable to visit as Kuki militant groups are active in the area.
“ Assisted by central armed paramilitary forces the CBI team will also visit the area to find the bodies,” the official, quoted earlier, said.
The family members of the two victims have separately confirmed to the Manipur police that they were wearing the same clothes as seen in the now viral photographs, which surfaced on Monday evening.
On September 25, two days after the state government restored cellular internet services, photos of the couple surfaced on social media. One showed them sitting on the ground in what appears to be a forest with two armed men in the background, and another showed them apparently lying dead on the ground. The man’s head appeared to be missing in the photograph and the woman’s face is not visible. The two are wearing the same clothes as seen in the first photograph. Their faces are not visible in the second photograph. HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the photographs.
