In what has sent a very strong message among the troublemongers in Bodoland Territorial Council, the Assam Police on Thursday arrested Bodoland Peoples’ Front MLA Pradeep Brahma.
Mr Brahma, one of the trusted lieutenants of BTC chief Hagrama Mahiliary, was arrested from his residence at Dotama soon after midnight in connection with seven FIRs in Fakiragram and Dotama police stations of trouble-torn Kokrajhar district.
Following the arrest of the MLA, an indefinite curfew has been clamped in Kokrajhar district as hundreds of people led by BPF legislators came out to protest the arrest. The protesters blocked railway tracks and national highways asking for unconditional release of the legislator. Mr Brahma, who represent Kokrajhar West constituency, has been booked under various section of IPC wherein he has been accused to have been involved in rioting and arson.
The BPF, led by its chief Hagrama Mihilary, is in power in the Bodoland Territorial Council, which administers the four Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts. The party is also a partner in the state’s Congress-led government and has ministers in the Gogoi council of ministers. The CBI, which is also probing ethnic clashes in Assam, is likely to question Mr Brahma in a day or two. The agency, which has registered seven FIRs to probe violence in the state, is also scrutinising call details of certain local politicians. Sources in the CBI said, “The agency is planning to question some local politicians, including Brahma, in a day or two”.
Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police (law and order) L.R. Bishnoi said that victims of Kokrajhar violence had named the BPF MLA’s involvement into the violence in Kokrajhar, which broke out July 20. Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi who on Thursday met editors of the local newspapers seeking their support in restoring communal harmony in the trouble-torn areas, also justified the police action.
About BPF MLAs threatening to severe their ties with his government, Mr Gogoi said, “It is on BPF to decide. The law will take its own course and if some one is found to have been involved in arson and rioting, police will have to take the action.”