Imphal, Feb. 6 : The Manipur social welfare department, child activists and Assam Rifles today agreed that the three minor children of a widow who was murdered in Manipur last month should be taken to an orphanage run by church leaders in Senapati district for the time being.
The Assam Rifles had handed over the children — Sonika Devi, 13, Tinku Singh, 9 and Rita Devi, 8, — to Rev. Vumthang Sitlhou, who runs an orphanage, Compassion Manipur Children Home, at Damdei in Senapati district, yesterday afternoon. But the manner in which the troops had taken away the children had angered child activists.
Col. R.K. Shivrain, the commanding officer of 39 Assam Rifles, today brought the children to the social welfare office and later took them back to the orphanage with permission from the social welfare department and Child Welfare Committee. The children had stayed at this home for a year in 2007 after their father’s death.