Bodo MLA Pradeep Brahma arrested for involvement in Assam violence
An MLA of Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF), an ally of the ruling Congress, was arrested early today and charged with inciting communal violence, as his supporters blockaded railway tracks in lower Assam in protest. Pradeep Brahma, alias Gara, representing Kokrajhar (West) constituency, was arrested from his Dotoma residence near Kokrajhar town at about 1:00 am, official sources said. The MLA was charged under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapons, 149 (unlawful assembly), 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance), 427 (causing damage), 379 (theft) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC.
He was produced before Chief Judicial Magistrate C Chaturvedi who remanded him to seven-day judicial custody. The MLA's arrest sparked off protest with BPF supporters blockading railway tracks and preventing rail movement in lower Assam, officials said. The rail blockade was lifted after 12:00 noon with train services resuming. All trains were running behind schedule, the sources said. The Kokrajhar administration imposed indefinite curfew throughout the district since 5:00 am with the army staging flag march in sensitive areas as tension was high. The BPF Kokrajhar district committee called an indefinite bandh from today to protest the MLA's arrest and demanded his immediate release. BPF is the ruling party of the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD) whose chief is Hagrama Mohilary.
More than 80 persons have lost their lives and four lakh rendered homeless in the violence in the districts of Kokrajhar, Dhubri, Chirang and Bongaigaon. A bandh was also called by a new outfit Muslim Yuva Parishad, which paralysed lower Assam districts with shops, schools, business establishments and financial institutions remaining closed while there was less traffic on the national highway. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who met members of civil society on the recent violence in the state, appealed to the people to ignore rumours. Gogoi admitted that relief camps were overcrowded and there was need for decongestion and proper sanitation. Meanwhile, according to Union Home Joint Secretary Sambhu Singh, who is heading a seven-member central team to the riot-hit districts, the CBI which is probing the cause of the riots has not found involvement of any insurgent outfit from Bangladesh. "We have not found involvement of any external force so far, but CBI is conducting inquiries into some cases and if there is something, it will definitely come out," Singh said.
Stating that there was malicious campaign by misinformed people from social media sites in Pakistan, Singh said the actual sources of photographs and messages uploaded on Facebook, You-tube and Twitter to ignite communal passions were being ascertained. He said, "So far 310 web sites have been blocked and many more are on the anvil as they come to our notice."
