Manipuri Journalist-Acticist Duo in Jail for More than 45 Days After FB Posts Criticising Use of Cow Dung and Urine as Covid-19 Cure

July 4, 2021 by News Desk

A Manipuri duo – a Journalist and an activist have been in jail for more than 45 days now, for criticizing politicians who recommended Cow Dung and Urine as cures for Covid-19.

Journalist Kishorchandra Wangkhem and activist Erendro Leichombam were arrested under the National Security Act (NSA) after they had been granted bail for an earlier arrest for their social media posts where they pay their condolences while also writing that cow dung or cow urine was no cure for COVID-19, in two separate posts.

The two were picked up from their respective homes after BJP’s state vice-president Usham Deban Singh and general secretary, P Premananda Metei filed a complaint against Wangkhem and Leichombam.

As per the latest report by VICE World News, Leichombam’s brother Sikendro was extremely distressed about his arrest. He said, “It was traumatic for my parents. The cops pushed my mother while making the arrest.”

Then, the police barged into Kishorechandra Wangkhem’s house some miles away and arrested him as well. His wife says that the journalist was assaulted in front of his three young children.

“My three-year-old daughter pooped in her pyjamas and started crying as my seven-year-old tried to calm her,” Wangkhem’s wife Ranjita Elangbam said.

Both of them have a history of speaking out on social media against members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and their policies, and they’ve gotten into trouble for it before.

The two were arrested under the National Security Act (NSA). The BJP members, who filed complaints against them have alleged that the Facebook posts “deliberately and wilfully insulted and outraged religious feelings and sentiments” of BJP workers and family members of the deceased.

Leichombam’s Facebook post read, “The cure for Corona is not cow dung &cow urine. The cure is science & common sense.”

Whereas, Wanghem’s post stated that cow dung and urine don’t work as Cures for COVID-19.

Both comments came after a local BJP leader died from COVID-19 complications, while other party members shared videos promoting supposed cures made from cow dung and urine.

News Desk

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