Candidates summoned

IMPHAL, Feb 16 : The Chief Judicial Magistrate Imphal West has issued summons to 4 candidates of the upcoming State Assembly election from Lamshang AC and the publisher and the Editor of a local daily returnable on March 16 in connection with the defamation case filed by Education Minister Sorokhaibam Rajen.
The case was filed against Indian National Congress candidate Likmabam Manibabu, Independent candidate Arambam Karamjit, Janta Dal United candidate Khundrakpam Kanba, National People's Party candidate Pukhrambam Sumati, editor and publisher of a local daily.
Application filed by Education Minister Sorokhaibam Rajen mentioned that on February 11, the four candidates of Lamshang AC held a press conference at Manipur Press Club and raised many unfounded allegations against him in the print and electronic media and the statement of the candidates were published in one of the Manipuri local dailies on the front page under the headline 'Minister Rajen Tongan Tonganba Chahisingda BA Pass touramba thengnarae'.
The 4 candidates had alleged in the news report that the Education Minister was found to have got his BA degree in three different years 1985, 1988 and 1992 in different documents. They had also stated that even if he was elected from in the upcoming election they will file a case against him at the High Court of Manipur regarding the mismatch of information and hence it was no use giving vote to S Rajen. They had also alleged that there was also a mismatch in the name of the father of the Education Minister as submitted in the nomination.
In the application submitted to the CJM Imphal West, S Rajen stated that his father's name recorded as S Nila earlier is the name of his adopted father who is the elder brother of his real father S Yaimabi Singh. He added in the application that after the death of his adopted father he had changed his father's name to his real father's name S Yaimabi. The same was done by the Election Department Government of Manipur as per the guideline of the Election Commission of India.
Regarding the allegation of different years of passing BA S Rajen stated that he had got his BA degree in the year 1988 from Manipur University but the certificate was missing and a missing report was also published in local dailies. He added that he had applied for a duplicate certificate from Manipur University and was issued a duplicate certificate on February 3, 2022 which clearly stated that he had got his BA degree from YK College (under MU) bearing roll number 13681 of 1988.
The Education Minister in his application said the other candidates had levelled false allegations against him with a view to harm his reputation and prestige.