Athlete's parent from Rajashthan changes his statement; Says No Extortion Occurred

An athlete's parent from Rajasthan, who posted a video on social media alleging that the Wushu Team were extorted at gunpoint by "Kuki militants" while travelling in Manipur for the National School Games Championship, has retracted his statement the following day.

In the video shared by many social media users on Monday and a few media houses in Manipur, the man who claimed to be a parent of the student alleged that the Kuki had stopped the children at gunpoint for two hours and took money from the team.
Following circulation of the video, it was reported that Manipur Youths and Sports Department wrote to Imphal West district Superintendent of Police to take necessary legal action.

The Indian Express reported that according to a government official, no complaint had been filed regarding this by the delegation, who had left Imphal on Monday (January 19). Even during the event, the team did not report anything.

As per the Indian Express, the man who made the allegation was identified as Sunde. He told the Indian Express, “Since we don’t make videos usually, maybe there was some mistake in the way we had spoken. We didn’t realise the matter would escalate so much. When we were travelling, we were stopped by some people, who took the driver aside for some time, but the team was not extorted”.

Regarding the allegation made by Sunde, the Committee on Tribal Unity(CoTU) had also issued a statement rejecting the allegation and that no such incident had been reported to any police station, control room, or security agency in Manipur till date.

“In a conflict-sensitive state where security forces are on high alert and movement is closely monitored, it is inconceivable that an armed, gunpoint extortion Incident involving a school team could occur without leaving any official trace or prompt reporting. The complete absence of any FIR, GD entry, or formal complaint exposes the hollowness of these claims”, stated Kuki's body.

The Committee had also stated that Rajasthan School Wushu team authorities and parents have failed to disclose the exact location, time, route, or jurisdiction where the alleged incident supposedly occurred.

Stating that the complainants themselves were non-locals, unfamiliar with the region, its people, languages, and identities, CoTU asked, “On what basis did they identify the alleged individuals as "Kuki militants"? No explanation has been offered. No distinguishing features, uniforms, insignia, language, or proof have been cited”