Karma comes calling: Vigilante youths get the handcuffs

(From Left) MCD President A Rahman, Vidima Village Council Chairman meeting the victims in Dimapur on April 18.
 

Morung Express News 
Dimapur | April 18 

Offering one’s services for a good cause is volunteering, vigilantism in the guise of law & order is not and so is mixing up the two. With two back-to-back and deplorable vigilante incidents earning Nagaland bad press once again, hopefully, the citizenry and local councils would realise that civilian volunteers with ‘lathis’ cannot keep out a contagious virus. 

As a video showing a group of youths in Dimapur assaulting a helpless family, including a woman, went viral shocking people country-wide, the Nagaland Police acted quickly today arresting 4 youths, who were involved in the incident. 
Two were arrested by the Dimapur police earlier in the morning and two more in the afternoon on April 18. The arrested individuals were identified by the police as Valen Sote, Medovi Kiso, Thejasekho Sirie and Vilakhotuo Vizo. 

It stated in a media statement that they were arrested for “physical assault” and “circulation of a video clip recording the same incident in Vidima village.” A case has been registered in Sub Urban Police Station for further investigation, it said. 

It did not specify how or what caused the incident.  It only urged the public to “exercise caution” with what they post on social media. “Any insensitive action in this regard can have an adverse impact especially on the student community studying outside the state of Nagaland. Needless to mention stringent action will be taken against any such defaulter as per the relevant sections of IPC and Information Technology Act,” it cautioned.   

When contacted by The Morung Express for more information, official sources said that the incident occurred on April 14 in Vidima village. The assaulters were ‘volunteer’ youths of the village picked for keeping an eye on entry-exit to the village. The victims were a couple, who were not the boy’s parents. 

“The boy works and stays in Dimapur. His parents stay in Vidima. He went to visit them on April 13,” said a police official. He was to return to his house in Dimapur on April 14 but what caused him to stay back and the youths to look for him was still unclear, he said. 

“The youths were infuriated with the couple for allegedly feigning ignorance when they asked them about the boy’s whereabouts,” he said, while adding that investigation was on.  

As to the victims’ condition, other sources said that they were medical examined and their condition stable. The Muslim Council, Dimapur (MCD) said that it met the victims and the Vidima Village Council Chairman in the evening. The MCD said that the Chairman expressed regret over the incident and assured to take care of the victim couple. Meanwhile, the boy was send back to his house in Dimapur. 

Implications
Commenting on the incident, MCD President, A Rahman expressed concern on the likely negative repercussions of the incident. “We are disturbed by the incident, not only for our community here but also for Nagas living outside. As much as I sympathise with the victims, my other concern is of the likely repercussions this video would have outside of Nagaland,” he said. 

Gone viral on social media and picked up by the national news agencies, he said that it has only earned Nagaland bad press, and worse giving greater leverage to unscrupulous elements to take undue of the incident.  

“This and the deplorable “car tape scanner” incident is not doing any good to the image of Nagaland, I hope the Nagaland state government is taking damage control measures.”