IMPHAL, Aug 18 - A peace rally was held here on Thursday demanding justice and burial of mortal remains of a housewife belonging to a Catholic family.
The rally passed through the main streets of Imphal and converged for a gathering after submitting a memorandum to Chief Minister N Biren Singh. The rally was organised by Catholic bodies in the State and Joint Action Committee (JAC) demanding burial of Ritah Haorei�s mortal remains.
Forty-two year-old Ritah died on August 7, but her body has been lying in the campus of a Catholic church in Litan, a village in Ukhrul district, as her mortal remains were not allowed to be buried in Leingangching village on the ground that her family had been ex-communicated and banished seven years ago for �violating the village norms�.
But Ritah�s husband Yangmi Haorei, a Catholic refused to bury her anywhere else other than his native village Leingangching.
In a recent media interaction, Wungreikhan Kasar headman of Leingangching, a village said to be dominated by Baptists, informed that Yangmi had no right to claim that he is a native of the village because he was excommunicated and subsequently banished for violating social rules in 2010. �It is an internal matter of the village and has nothing to do with Christian denominations,� the headman added.
However, supporting Yangmi�s claim, the JAC submitted a memorandum to the CM during the peace rally, demanding constitution of a fact-finding body to administer justice.
