The District and Sessions Court of Imphal, Manipur ordered release of Irom Sharmila Chanu on 19 August 2014, dismissing that she was attempting to commit suicide by way of hunger strike.
She was arrested on charges of attempted suicide and was sent to a prison hospital where she was force-fed via a nasal drip several times a day.
About Irom Sharmila Chanu
- Irom Sharmila Chanu was born 14 March 1972 and is a civil rights activist, political activist, and poet from the Indian state of Manipur
- She is also known as Iron Lady of Manipur or Mengoubi.
- She is the world's longest hunger striker.
- Sharmila began her fast in November 2000, demanding for the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), 1958, after witnessing the killing of 10 people by the army at a bus stop near her home in Manipur.
Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958
- An Act to enable certain special powers to be conferred upon members of the armed forces in disturbed areas in the States of Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura and the Union Territories of Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram.
- It enables the armed forces to arrest without warrant, any person who has committed a cognisable offence or against whom a reasonable suspicion exists that he has committed or is about to commit a cognizable offence and may use such force as may be necessary to effect the arrest.
- It also enables them to open fire upon or otherwise use force; even to the causing of death, against any person who is acting in contravention of any law or order for the time being in force in the disturbed area prohibiting the assembly of five or more persons or the carrying of weapons or of things capable of being used as weapons or of fire-arms, ammunition or explosive substances.
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