HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, March 6: Leader of the opposition in Assam assembly Debabrata Saikia was on Wednesday interrogated by police over a case related to the clash when ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ entered Guwahati in January.
A senior police officer said he reached the CID headquarters here and was asked questions related to his alleged role in the incident.
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Saikia told PTI that he was quizzed for around three hours and no date for further questioning has been given.
Initially, the criminal investigation department (CID) of Assam Police issued notices to Congress MLA Jakir Hussain Sikdar and the party’s Guwahati City general secretary Ramen Kumar Sarma, and both of them have already been questioned by police.
It later dashed off summonses to Saikia and Assam Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah, but both of them did not appear on the scheduled date.
Police later issued fresh notices to both of them for the second time. Saikia was asked to appear on March 6, while Borah was asked to come on March 7.
Reacting to the fresh summons, Borah said he will not be able to appear on Thursday as his father’s death anniversary falls on that day, besides having a party meeting on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will also be issued a summons regarding the clash and the opposition leader will have to be physically present before police after the Lok Sabha polls.
On January 23, Congress workers in presence of Gandhi and other leaders broke police barricades, which were put up after Sarma threatened to file an FIR if the Yatra attempted to enter the main Guwahati city.
The party workers clashed with police, who used mild lathicharge to control the situation but failed to protect the barricade. Several police personnel and party workers were injured in the scuffle.
After dismantling the barrier, the Congress workers, however, did not proceed further with Gandhi stating that they “can break barricades, but will not break law” and moved through its permitted route along the NH-27 in Guwahati.
This episode forced the Chief Minister to term the action as “naxalite” style and instructed the police to register a case. The Guwahati Police lodged a suo motu FIR against Gandhi and other leaders for “wanton acts of violence”.
Sarma even announced that the “instigators”, including Gandhi, will be arrested after Lok Sabha polls as he does not want to “politicise” the issue before the general elections.
Along with Gandhi, other senior Congress leaders like KC Venugopal, Jitendra Singh, Jairam Ramesh, Srinivas BV, Kanhaiyya Kumar, Gaurav Gogoi, Bhupen Kumar Borah, Debabrata Saikia and others have also been named in the FIR.
The chief minister, who also holds the home department in the state, later announced that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) will be formed to probe the case and accordingly, it was handed over to the CID.
The case was initially filed at the Basistha Police Station under 10 different sections, including non-bailable ones, such as 120B (criminal conspiracy), 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 188 (disobedience of order), 283 (causing danger, obstruction or injury) and 332 (causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) of the IPC.
Section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984 for alleged mischief causing damage to public property has also been slapped in the FIR.
Similarly, another FIR was registered against the ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ and its organisers like KB Byju, Assam Congress Chief Bhupen Kumar Borah and others for allegedly deviating from its permitted route inside Jorhat town, leading to a “chaotic situation” in the area.
The Jorhat District Police issued notices to the accused persons and several of them have already been interrogated.
Referring to the police cases against him and other Congress leaders in Assam, Gandhi had dared the BJP-ruled state to file “as many cases as it can”, asserting that he would not be intimidated.
The Yatra, led by the Congress MP, commenced from Manipur on January 14 and will culminate on March 20 in Mumbai.
The Assam leg of the march, which started on January 18 and concluded on January 25, covered a distance of 833 km in 17 districts.
The Yatra plans to cover 6,713 km in 67 days while passing through 110 districts in 15 states. (PTI)
