News

Imphal, May 5: The superintendent of Chandel district police, T. Samte, who was accused of raping a minor girl who worked at his quarters as domestic help, has been arrested and sent to judicial custody. Sources said the SP was arrested on Sunday from a ward of Imphal’s Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital, where he had been admitted for treatment.

The next day the police produced the officer before the chief judicial magistrate of Chandel, S. Sohadev, who ordered a 15-day judicial remand, till May 17.

The accused had applied for bail but the chief judicial magistrate rejected the plea as he thought...

Agartala, May 5: On the eve of the surrender by NLFT rebels, the state police and the militants are allegedly working together to include a number of former militants, who had surrendered earlier and had received rehabilitation benefits. Official sources said leading commander Kamini Debbarma, a former Kokborok (tribal language) teacher by profession, had first laid down arms along with Tripura National Volunteers (TNV) militants in September 1988 and got back his job and other rehabilitation benefits.

Commander Dhanu Koloi, a former pump-operator in the public health engineering department...

Kohima, May 5: At the end, it wasn’t interference by rebels but proxy voting which marred polling for the lone Lok Sabha seat in Nagaland today. The voting percentage is estimated to be around 87. Repoll will be held, probably on May 7, in one polling station in Tuensang district where more votes were cast than the actual number of voters. The polling station has 597 voters on its list but 602 votes were polled, returning officer T.N. Mannen said.

Young proxy voters had a field day, casting votes at random and removing the ink mark on their fingers with Velocity, a solution used by...

Diyun (Arunachal Pradesh), May 5: Chakmas and Hajongs today scripted a new chapter in the electoral history of Arunachal Pradesh by voting for the first time, defying a bandh and poll boycott call by the All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU). The estimated voter turnout in the state was around 50 per cent, said additional chief electoral officer D.J. Bhattacharjee from Itanagar. Polling in the state was by and large peaceful, barring two incidents of EVM-damage at Pating in Kurumkame district and Tagampu polling station under East Kameng district, he added.

The AAPSU, which called a...

SHILLONG, May 5 – With the surrender of 11 more Hynniewtrep National Volunteer Council (HNLC) militants at a BSF camp near the Mizoram-Bangladesh border last week, the number of ultras belonging to the outlawed outfit has gone up to 56. Meghalaya Police are yet unaware of the details of the surrender though they confirmed the event. The ultras were escorted to Jowai in Jaintia Hills district in the state yesterday.

One self-loading rifles (SLR) and some ammunition were given up by the extremists during the surrender, police said. According to preliminary accounts of the surrender, the 11...