Imphal: Former chairman of Autonomous District Council (ADC), Chandel district, Lhukhosei Zou who was acquitted from the infamous 2018 multi-crore drug seizure case by a Special Court (ND&PS), Manipur, on December 17, 2020 has come under the radar of Supreme Court once again.
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According to a report in an Imphal based leading news portal in Manipur, The Frontier Manipur, the apex Court has asked as to why Manipur government did not go for appeal in the well-known drug haul case. In this regard, Manipur government has been asked to reply on or before April 29 for not pursuing the case. The matter was heard by Supreme Court Justice SK Kaul and Justice MM Sundresh at Court number 6 today. The counsels who appeared for the petitioner Maibam Jogesh and others through virtual hearing were Colin Gonsalves, M Gunedhor, Chongtham Victor and Olivia Bang.
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It may be mentioned that the chargesheet filed against Lhukhosei Zou on December 15, 2018, but was released on interim bail on December 19, 2018 on health grounds. On January 8, 2019, when his routine court appearance came, he failed to turn up and since then remained traceless. Accordingly, the state government declared him as an absconder. However, he surrendered to the court in February 2020 and appeared in the special court in person after the court allowed a plea submitted by his counsel to allow his client to surrender and participate in the trial on February 28, 2020.Â
The former ADC chairman was elected as the member of district council on Congress ticket and later joined the BJP to form the local body government in Chandel.Â
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