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Manipur's Iron Lady Irom Sharmila charged with attempting suicide

NEW DELHI,5th March 2013: A Delhi court today framed charges against Manipur's Iron Lady Irom Sharmila Chanu for allegedly attempting to commit suicide during her 'fast until death' in 2006.

She has been fasting for the last 12 years demanding the annulment of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Manipur.

Metropolitan Magistrate Akash Jain framed charges against Sharmilaunder section 309 (attempting to commit suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) after she refused to plead guilty, saying that her protest was not a violent one.

She told the court that she "loves life and does not want to take my own life".

Sharmila, who was present in the court, denied that she attempted to commit suicide at Jantar Mantar here in 2006.She said: "I only want justice." "If I wanted to commit suicide I might have died. My protest was non-violent for my demand, just to live as human being," she added.

She appeared before the court under IPC 309 (attempt to commit suicide) for fasting at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.

Earlier on Sunday, Sharmila said the voices of protest couldn't be ignored for long. "My protest is not an attempt to suicide but a means to demonstrate without violence. In Manipur, due to AFSPA, violence has become the means of administration. The Indian government must repeal it," she said. "I am not committing suicide. This is my way of protest. I am protesting by non-violent means," she added.

She further said that the Government of India must heed to the voice of the masses in the interest of social justice.

"The government should listen (to) people's protest of (for) justice. So, when it is some time, they will hear my voice. So, I just want them to awaken for a good of the whole society," she added.

Sharmila had been summoned by the metropolitan magistrate no. 6, Patiala House court complex, in connection with her hunger strike in New Delhi seven years ago demanding repeal of the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.

Sharmila had left Imphal on October 4, 2006, to continue her hunger strike in New Delhi to draw the attention of the authorities and also the international community on her demand for repeal of the act.

Sharmila went to the national capital after she was released from jail on October 3, 2006, on completion of one year of her offence ' "attempt to commit suicide".

She continued her hunger strike for five months in New Delhi and returned to Imphal on March 8, 2007.

Though she was admitted in a hospital during her campaign in the national capital, she was officially under judicial custody. Therefore, the court has summoned her tomorrow.

"I will not change my stand until the act is repealed. I don't know much about my appearance in the court as government authorities haven't informed me about the details of my trip to New Delhi," she told reporters at Imphal airport, before boarding an Indian Airlines flight.

Sharmila began her hunger strike in November 2000 after troops of the Assam Rifles shot dead 10 civilians at a bus stand in Imphal West in retaliation to a militant attack.

Even when chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh had requested her to call off her fast after withdrawing the act from the Imphal municipal limits in August 2004, Sharmila refused and said the entire state should be free from the act. (With inputs from Agencies).