The Manipur High Court has ordered the release of a journalist detained under the National Security Act for a Facebook post criticizing the promotion of cow dung and urine as cure for Covid-19.
The high court July 23 agreed with the contention of journalist Kishorchandra Wangkhem’s wife that his case was the same as that of Erendro Leichombam, the political activist who was freed by the Supreme Court five days ago on the ground of protection of personal liberty after he had spent 67 days in custody over a similar Facebook post.
Kishorchandra, associate editor of the news portal The Frontier Manipur, who was jailed May 17 walked out of Sajiwa jail around 4.10 pm. He told The Telegraph minutes later that he would continue to work for the “betterment of society” by creating awareness among the public against laws such as that on sedition and the NSA.
A BJP-led coalition government is in power in Manipur.
The division bench of Manipur High Court Chief Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice Kh Nobin Singh di-rected Kishorchandra’s immediate release while acting on the “letter petition” emailed by the journalist’s wife, Elang-bam Ranjita, to the chief justice and “his puisne judges” on Thursday seeking her husband’s release.