One held for ‘scripting anti-vaccine campaign’

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Jun 18 :  Chief Judicial Magistrate Imphal West today remanded 41 year old Khoisnam Shantikumar to five days police custody for allegedly uploading a video on social media undermining the efforts of the Government and the Health Department to curb COVID-19 spread.
The accused Khoisam Shantikumar, s/o Jilla of Lairenjam Awang Leikai (Mekola) was produced before the Court by a team of Imphal Police Station through video conference under different section of IPC and section 3 of Pandemic Disease Act 1897.
The IO of the case through APP submitted that the  accused uploaded a video on Facebook and Whatsapp to spread false information and mislead the general public on Covid vaccination.
It is also submitted that the said video, apart from demoralising the front line workers, affected the initiatives of the Government and the Health Department as many people lost faith in the ongoing vaccination programme.
The IO then prayed the Court to remand the accused to five days police custody for smooth investigation of the case.
On the other hand, legal aid counsel on behalf of the accused submitted that the charges levelled against the accused are not that serious and prayed for rejecting the remand prayer.
The Court after hearing and on perusal of the fact and material record placed before remanded the accused to judicial custody till June 22 and also directed the IO of the case to examine the accused every 48 hours either at RIMS or JNIMS.