Hotel Imphal: The scene of help desks, panels, parleys

On the second floor, legislators were meeting Sambit Patra to form a new BJP-led government in Manipur

On Thursday, hours before the Centre imposed President’s Rule in Manipur, Hotel Imphal in Manipur’s capital was buzzing.

The hotel is less than three kilometres from the CM’s office. (HT Photo)

On the second floor, legislators were meeting Sambit Patra, the man appointed by the central Bharatiya Janata Party leadership to avert a constitutional crisis and form a new BJP-led government in Manipur after the chief minister N Biren Singh resigned.

Which wasn’t surprising. If anything is happening in Manipur — and lots is — it’s happening at the Hotel Imphal. The first floor houses the office of the Commission of Inquiry(CoI) that is tasked with finding the cause of the ethnic violence that has roiled the state, off and on, for two years.

And, until six months ago, the ground floor housed a special “reception desk” for the Central Bureau of Investigation. There have been few tourists in Manipur since ethnic clashes began in May 2023 but the Hotel Imphal has no shortage of guests — reporters, police officers, bureaucrats, and politicians.

While the ethnic clashes prompted immediate demands for the removal of the former chief minister Biren Singh, including from within his own party, it was only on February 9, with a looming confidence vote, that the BJP’s central leadership decided it was time for him to go.

Since then, Patra has been parked at the hotel, which is less than three kilometres from the CM’s office and the Manipur assembly building. He held closed door meetings with candidates to replace Singh. Patra, who is the party’s coordinator for northeast, separately met at least five different legislators opposed to Singh. The party’s other legislators, who support Singh were up in the CM’s office, tracking the visitors.

But the search proved futile, and the Centre finally had no option but to impose President’s Rule.

While Patra, on the second floor, was trying to find a face for the state’s political future, the first floor is where retired judges and bureaucrats are probing the past.

Room number 104 is the headquarters of CoI. Chaired by retired Justice Ajai Lamba and with two other members, retired IPS officer Aloka Prabhakar and Himanshu Shekhar Das(IAS retired), the commission has been mandated to find answers to four key questions – causes and spread of violence, sequence of events leading to it, lapses/dereliction of duty on part of authorities responsible, and adequacy of administrative measures taken to deal the violence.

On August 23,2023, three months after ethnic clashes broke out in the state, the room was notified as the Commission’s headquarters and CRPF personnel took over the security. It is here that witnesses , including bureaucrats and police officers, who were on duty in the days leading to May 3, 2023, were examined. Different civil society groups too met with the members.

The commission has reportedly received around 11,000 affidavits as part of the probe. On December 3, the Centre notified May 20, 2025, as the deadline for CoI to submit their findings.

A hotel staffer who asked not to be named said the room remains out of bounds for even hotel staff. “ All Meitei witnesses, including police officers, and bureaucrats were summoned here. The Kuki community people, including officers, who were witnesses, could not come to Imphal, so the commission has another office in New Delhi.”

The commission’s “camp office” is at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium in New Delhi.

At different times in the last 21 months, rooms inside Hotel Imphal have also been used as camp offices by teams of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which is investigating at least 27 cases related to the violence. And starting from the peak of violence up to until mid-2024, there was a “CBI reception” on the ground floor of the hotel,

A second employee at the hotel, who asked not to be named, said, this was where witnesses would report. “Senior officers stayed here and were meeting witnesses. Junior CBI officials such as inspectors and DSPs were staying at our second property nearby, the Classic Hotel.”

That too, has a CBI reception, this person added.

Security outside the hotel has again been tightened since Monday, following Patra’s confidential meetings with the legislators. The hotel is set to get more security because the Union home ministry has ordered Z category security protection by CRPF for Patra during his stay in Manipur. Z is the second highest level of protection, and means he will be guarded by at least 36 CRPF personnel.

There are advantages of working at the hotel, employees say. At different times since the clashes, the state government has suspended internet to prevent the spread of violence. The longest suspension was for five months in 2023, the most recent was in November last year for23 days.

“Even if internet is banned throughout the state, we have an advantage here. We know that the first place where internet services will be allowed with permission is our hotel. The government work at the offices in our hotel cannot stop. Of course, we always give an undertaking and ensure it is not misused,” the second hotel employee added.