Agartala: Alleging a “conspiracy” to kill or slap serious charges on its leader Sudip Roy Barman, the Congress on Thursday said it was considering moving the Tripura High Court to seek security for its leaders unless the state government provides adequate protection immediately.
A senior Tripura Minister, however, rubbished the allegations. Roy Barman, along with another BJP MLA Ashis Kumar Saha, recently crossed over to the Congress. All India Congress Committee in-charge for the state Dr Ajoy Kumar alleged here that Tripura Pradesh Congress leaders have been “facing threats” and are being subjected to “criminal attacks” for the past two weeks after the two BJP MLAs Barman and Saha joined his party.
He said Roy Barman was apprehensive that he could be killed anytime or be implicated in serious criminal charges to keep him in jail for a long time .
“Sudip has come to know that a conspiracy has been hatched at the top level and a group of professional killers was brought from outside the state. The state government has planned to book him on serious charges. ‘We have already asked for adequate security including stepping up protection to the family members of all the top Congress leaders,” Kumar told mediapersons.
He expressed “grave concern” over Tripura’s law and order situation and said, if necessary, the party would knock on the doors of the high court to ensure adequate safety and security for its leaders.
“We wrote to the Chief Minister (Biplab Kumar Deb) and Director General of Police (V S Yadav) seeking security for Sudip Roy Barman and Ashis Kumar Saha soon after they joined the Congress last month. The letters were sent on February 18 but we did not receive any response. So we are considering moving the higher judiciary,” he said.
The recent incidents of violence and attacks on both the leaders in different parts of the state including Agartala justify the apprehensions of threat to their lives, said Kumar. Meanwhile, Tripura Congress president Birajit Sinha claimed that more than 5000 BJP supporters including a sizable number of its local leaders joined the Congress recently and after completion of four years of the government next week, several more BJP MLAs and leaders would follow suit. When contacted, state Information Minister and BJP leader Sushanta Chowdhury said the Congress was only trying to derive “political mileage”.
“These allegations are baseless. The Congress is unnecessarily trying to gain public sympathy to derive political mileage, despite not having a minimum base,” Chowdhury told UNI.
