Four Assam Police constables of Bordumsa suspended for ‘striking deal’ with drug peddlers
Our Correspondent
BORDUMSA: Four constables of Assam Police attached to Bordumsa Police Station of Margherita subdivision in Tinsukia were suspended on Wednesday for their alleged involvement in a perverted act of creating fear psychosis and extorting money from a drug peddler held and handed over by activists of Moran Students’ Union and general public of the area earlier on Tuesday afternoon.
The constables booked under case no 25/19 and prosecuted under appropriate section of 385 IPC were identified as Mridul Ahmed, Rajiv Bora, Kiran Sonar and Lila Gohain. Mridul Ahmed was a constable of Assam Police while remaining three were the cadres of the 2nd Battalion attached to Bordumsa Police Station.
Confirming the suspension of the cadres, an Assam Police source said that along with the three arrested drug peddlers, including a woman, the constables would also face legal consequence for the dereliction of duty.
Meanwhile, Radha Moran (24), wife of Amal Moran, a resident of Bordumsa Bazar area, Ashim Konwar alias Huntu (42), son of Anil Konwar of Bordumsa Bazar area and Guna Bora (34) of Ulup village in Margherita were also arrested and prosecuted in the same case u/s 385 IPC, r/w 21 (b) of NDPS act. Around 85 grams of suspected brown sugar were also recovered from their possession.
Guna Bora was inhaling the contraband substance at the residence of local drug peddler Ashim Konwar in the bazaar area where the public nabbed both of them and handed them over to four police constables. The constables, instead of helping in legal prosecution, started negotiating with Bora and the deal which finally settled at Rs 25,000 against the initial demand of Rs. 50,000. People and activists of the Moran Students’ Union stepped in while the transaction was going on and caught the constables red-handed.
Later, the crowd further conducted raids in the nearby fish market and hotels mushrooming illegally along the border road resulting in the further recovery of nine small sachets of suspected brown sugar containing 5 grams in each packet, from the possession of Radha Moran. Several hundred bottles of foreign liquor procured from an Arunachal liquor retailer and stored in a hotel run by Radha Moran were also recovered and subsequently destroyed by the infuriated mob.
The agitated crowd also raised anti-police slogans till Tuesday late night and demanded exemplary punishment for all the parties involved in the act. The fish market which is unstructured, unplanned and unregistered, is widely known for open sale of drugs using coded words. “From here the drug is peddled in all the nearby interior Assam -Arunachal areas like Namsai, Mahadevpur, Chongkham,Tezu, Pyong, Diyun, Miao, Kharsang Pengaree, Digboi, Margherita, Inthem, Mugongpather Jagun, Jairampur and Kakopather,” said a habitual drug consumer of the bazaar area on condition of anonymity.
According to the Gorkha students’ body, the unabated illegal encroachment around the fish market area has also been rampant and the complaints, prayers and petitions of the people to restore the area according to the original sketch map have also fallen on the deaf ears of the SDO (civil ) resulting in the increase in the number of illegal occupants, thus creating avenues for running such anti-social activities.