Trinamool Congress Files multiple FIR against Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal

KOLKATA, Aug 3: A day after FIRs were lodged against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at various Assam police stations for ‘inciting hatred’, Trinamool Congress (TMC) lawmakers on Friday filed police complaints against her Assam counterpart for harassing and manhandling a party delegation at Silchar airport.

State Assembly legislator Mohua Moitra registered a police complaint at Alipore police station, while Lok Sabha members Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Mamatabala Thakur recorded their complaint at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International airport police station under the Bidhannagar Police commissionerate.

The complainants alleged that the police “illegally detained”, “manhandled” and “harassed” the eight-member Trinamool delegation at the behest of Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Thursday at Kumbhirgram airport, reports IANS.

Staff Reporter adds: Dispur has said that if the TMC makes any fresh attempt to fish in troubled waters in Assam in the post-NRC scenario, it will have to take a tough stand against the party. Talking to the media in Guwahati on Thursday, State Parliamentary Affairs, Transport and Industries Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said: “The TMC isn’t thinking about the national security. The party has its eyes set on the political mileage it can derive from the post-NRC situation in Assam. If the party makes any fresh attempt to fish in troubled waters in Assam, Dispur won’t have any alternative but to take a tough stand against the party. There’s no misunderstanding among various communities and ethnic groups in Assam in post-NRC. They’re living in complete harmony.”

Patowary said, “West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s stand on NRC goes squarely against Assam. The people of Assam know how to live in harmony and co-exist. The TMC doesn’t know the exact problem of Assam. The party is out to paint a grim picture of Assam in rest of India and the world.”

The visiting Trinamool team, comprising six MPs, one West Bengal minister and one MLA was confined to a room at the airport in Silchar on Thursday on the ground that Section 144 of the CrPC was in force in Assam’s Cachar district.

The Trinamool delegation was slated to participate in a convention at Silchar against the recently-released draft of National Register of Citizenship (NRC).

On Thursday, cases were lodged against Banerjee in a number of Assam police stations for her remark that the NRC could lead to ‘civil war’ and ‘bloodbath’.