Booked for sedition, 2 Manipur scribes released from detention after they admit mistake

A day after detaining twojournalists for sedition following the publication of anarticle ''endorsing revolutionary ideologies'' on their newsportal, the Manipur police on Monday released them as theyadmitted that it was published due to oversight, an officersaid.

The police had also booked Executive Editor PaojelChaoba and Editor-in-chief Dhiren Sadokpam of The FrontierManipur online news portal under the Unlawful ActivitiesPrevention Act (UAPA).

The move followed the publication of an article,''Revolutionary journey in a mess'' by M Joy Luwang, in thewebsite on January 8. It criticised the ''revolutionary groups''of Manipur for moving away from their cause.

''They were detained on Sunday evening as part of theinvestigation process,'' Imphal West Superintendent of Police PK Meghachandra told PTI.

The police released them on Monday afternoon afterthey admitted in writing that the source was ''unverified'' andthe article was published due to oversight and such mistakeswill not recur, he said.

The police had registered an FIR suo motu saying thatthe article ''openly endorsed revolutionary ideologies andactivities and expressed shock at the deteriorating characterof armed revolutionaries of Manipur in the last decade''.

In a letter to the police, Chaoba said, ''I submit thatit was an oversight from our part. There will be no suchmistakes which will not pass on scrutiny in future.'' He also said that ''the source was unverified but camefrom one person called M Joy Luwang.'' PTI CORNN NN