Supreme Court has on Monday ordered release of Manipur based political activist Erendro Leichombam, who was detained under the draconian National Security Act over a Facebook post that cow dung or cow urine will not cure COVID-19.
The Bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud has ordered to release Leichombam before 5PM today on execution of bond of Rupees 1000, Live Law reported.
The petition has been moved by Erendro’s father L. Raghumani Singh who’s argued that this wasn’t a case of invocation of NSA which was only invoked to defeat the bail granted to Erendro and suffers from malice in law.
He was initially arrested on 13 May this year for his Facebook post where he had stated that: “The cure for Corona is Not cow dung & cow urine. The cure is science & common sense Professor ji RIP”. This post was made in the context of the death of the President of the Manipur BJP, Prof. Tikendra Singh, was meant as a criticism of the saffron party politicians who had been advocating cow-urine and cow-dung as cures for coronavirus. Enraged by the Facebook post, BJP state vice president filed complaint, leading to his arrest under draconian law.
The other person arrested with Erendro for Facebook post on the state BJP chief’s death is journalist Kishorchandra Wangkhem (41), who had posted, “Santhi Sanyungna yadrabo oh!!! RIP #Rashikang Kangyet Hayeng nga Chaani”, the gist of whose translation is: “Cow dung, cow urine didn’t work…”
