Army officer appears before Manipur HC following habeas corpus petition by his wife

Lt Col Dharamvir Singh, whose wife had filed a habeas corpus petition, today appeared before the Manipur High Court along with two other army officers.

They were produced before division bench of Chief Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar and Justice Kh Nobin Singh.

The high court had on July 5 directed General Officer Commanding (GOC) 3 corps to produce Lieutenant Colonel Dharamvir Singh before it.

The directive was issued by Justice Kh Nobin Singh in response to the habeas corpus petition filed by Ranju Singh, the wife of Lt Col Singh.

The two army officers - Lt Colonel Nanda and Major Rathod -- who appeared before the division bench denied that Lt Col Singh was detained as alleged in the petition.

The division bench suggested that the matter be heard in camera in the presence of the counsel of both the sides. The next hearing was fixed on next Friday.

Ranju Singh had in a writ petition on July 5 urged for the release of her husband and passing of an order to safeguard his human rights and produce him before the court.

She had also lodged an FIR at the city police station here on July 4 claiming that three army officers, including the two who appeared before the high court today, had along with eight to 10 uniformed jawans had taken away her husband from his official residence here on July 1 without issuing any warrant.

In the FIR, she had charged the army officers of wrongful confinement and kidnapping and concealing with criminal conspiracy by using arms and told the police that she was informed over phone by the Army that Lt Col Singh is in Dimapur in Nagaland.

The Army had said the allegations baseless and an attempt to malign its image.

It said that Singh was posted at Dimapur and was sent for temporary a assignment to Manipur on orders from the headquarters. On completion of the assignment, he had to report back at Dimapur on being relieved by another officer.

It was also claimed by the Army that Singh was assigned an official vehicle and a protection party on July 1 as movement of service personnel on a non-road opening day is protected by an escort party.

According to the Army, Singh had reached Rangapahar at 9 pm on July 1 and has been discharging his bonafide military duties as per his official charter.