Media reports gets HC attention

Aizawl, Mar 8 (UNI) The media reports of a missing boy from Vairengte since 2000 have prompted the Gauhati High Court (HC) to file a suo moto case against the accused Lt. Col Kulwant Singh.

Official sources here today said that the HC gave 24 hours to army to provide information on the whereabouts of the domestic help.

The division bench of Chief Justice B Sudershan Reddy and Justice B.P.Katakey asked the Mizoram government to submit a report on the progress of the investigation into the boy's disappearance after being recruited by the army officer.

Shillongthanga, an 11-year old boy in the year 2000, was employed by Lt Col Kulwant Singh in his house in Punjab after he was taken from Vairengte with the consent of his father. But has not been traced since.

The boy's father, Chhungrothanga, stated in his FIR at Vairengte police station that he had neither heard from his son nor received any money from Lt Col Singh in the last six years.

The court registered a case on February 24, taking suo moto cognisance of a news report that had been published just three days back.

It was learnt today that Vairengte police had rejected Chhungrothanga's FIR on grounds that the army officer had not committed any crime. He was told to file the FIR in Punjab.

However, after the high court swung into action, the Vairengte police have been trying to get a statement from the boy's father who is now residing in Zuangtui locality here.

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