Laifungbam Debabrata Roy

Human Rights Defender

Manipur

HRDA has issued an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission of India on April 8,2020 regarding the illegal detention/arrest, wrongful confinement and censorship of Dr. Laifungbam Debabrata Roy by Manipur Police. Dr. Roy is a physician, President of Center for Organisation, Research and Education (CORE), and Chairperson of the Steering Committee of Human to Humane Transcultural Centre for Trauma and Torture [H2H].

A police team including the Officer in Charge of Imphal West Police Station visited Mr. Roy with rifles and pistols on April 3, 2020 – a day after he put up a Facebook post criticising the Chief Minister (CM) – and informed him that the Superintendent of Police (SP) wanted to speak to him.

Mr. Roy accompanied the armed personnel to the SP’s office, where the SP asked him about his Facebook post and forced him to write a letter to the CM expressing his regrets in case the post offended the Chief Minister or lowered his personal dignity. Two hours later, Dr. Roy’s nephew was made to sign an arrest memo, and both of them were shown an FIR charging them under Section 188 (disobedience to follow order promulgated by public servant) of the IPC. Although the FIR was not registered, Mr. Roy was detained for more than 26 hours without being produced in court and released on April 4, 2020 only after deleting his Facebook post and sharing a video apologising to the CM.