A man who was alleged to have been a fundraiser for the outlawed Hynñiewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) was the victim of slander, local media said today.
Synshar Khymdeit was accused in a letter sent to the Shillong Press Club (SPC) president of having extorted money from a businessman in Khyndailad. The SPC president circulated this accusation among the local press and it was published in good faith. However, today, the SPC president said that it had been found that the letter’s sender “had malicious intentions to defame Synshar.”
Khymdeit, who hails from Mawhati in Ri-Bhoi, was named in the letter that was dated April 17 but which reached the SPC president only last month. The letter was sent through the India Post.
Following publication, the HNLC denied that Khymdeit was involved with it. Originally, the name of the sender was not published but was identified by the SPC president as one A Laskar, supposedly a trader who owns a shop in Khyndailad. He had claimed to have received an extortion demand in 2022 for the sum of Rs 4.40 lakh as a “tax” levied by the HNLC.
This was not the first time Khymdeit had faced such accusations. In 2023 he was accused of a similar thing and addressed the media directly to refute the allegations.
