Agartala: Police arrested as many as five Congress workers on Thursday morning under the Arms Act from different locations of Bishalgarh in Sepahijala district, about 30 kilometers south of the city in connection with political violence between the ruling BJP and opposition Congress on Wednesday that left at least 10 people including five fire service crews injured.
Police said at least 12 persons were detained on Wednesday night based on the complaint of BJP leaders and after a preliminary investigation five of them have been arrested for possessing illegal weapons and terrorizing the situation.
Two crude bombs were defused in the Routhkhala area of Bishalgarh during the visit of the forensic experts on Thursday.
However, 144 of CrPC was lifted in the morning after Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma and BJP state president Rajib Bhattacharjee visited the area and held meetings with police officials.
Congress workers allegedly hurled three bombs on Wednesday after BJP workers were reportedly shot three rounds of bullets during the scuffle.
The Congress held the Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) of Bishalgarh Rahul Das responsible for repeated violence in the district and demanded his immediate removal.
The party MLA and senior leader Sudip Roybarman alleged, “Das had served as OSD of Deputy CM for a long and he was posted in the district and he has been regularly having entertainment parties with BJP youth front chief and others. He is encouraging hooliganism of BJP cadres.”
There have been at least 10 major attacks on CPM, Congress, and others by ruling BJP cadres in Bishalgarh in one year after Das got posted there as SDPO. But surprisingly, police didn’t take a single action against any of the miscreants rather he was found associating with the criminals and local police also reported the matter to the Director General of Police time and again, Roybarman stated.
Police fired seven tear gas shells and opened 19 rounds of blank fire to disperse the mob and control the situation on Wednesday evening.
Congress leader Joydip Barman alleged that BJP cadres led by BJP Mandal president Sushanta Deb had launched an attack on the Congress workers with firearms when they were putting up party flags to open a party office in Routhkhala area on Wednesday morning.
They left five Congress workers and five Fire Service personnel injured in three subsequent attacks. A vehicle of the Fire Service was vandalized and a Congress party office at Naraura Panchayat was set on fire during the incident.
However, BJP Mandal president Deb denied the allegation and accused the Congress workers of resorting to attacking them with arms and Congress workers injured in-fight among them.
The SP (Sepahijala) Police B J Reddy said that all the complaints are being brought under investigation and no one will be spared who had tried to create unrest and breach the peace stated, “The situation is under control and sufficient force has been deployed in the area to cease tension.”
