Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said the state police would arrest Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after Lok Sabha elections. His remarks came a day after an FIR was registered against Gandhi and other Congress leaders following a confrontation between people taking part in the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra and the Assam police.
“We will arrest him (Rahul Gandhi) after the Lok Sabha elections, if we do it now it will get very politicised. The SIT will do its investigation now… Yesterday there could have been a major incident going by how they had instigated the mob to break barricades. Before the Lok Sabha elections, we will not do much because we will be winning from Assam anyway and there’s no point in making too much political noise here. It’s better if the state remains peaceful,” the CM said.
Meanwhile, Assam Director General of Police G P Singh said the case has been transferred to the state CID and a Special Investigation Team would be constituted “for a thorough and in-depth investigation”.
On Tuesday, the yatra had been denied permission to enter Guwahati city. When they were met with barricades and police at the road entering the city from the highway, participants broke through the obstruction and were pushed back by the security personnel. The yatra eventually continued along the highway and did not enter the city. Later that day, the police lodged a suo motu FIR under sections of the IPC pertaining to criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly, rioting, obstruction of public way, assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of duty, causing harm to a public servant, and damage to property.
The FIR names “unknown” as the accused but names Rahul Gandhi, Jitender Singh, K C Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Srinivas B V, Kanhaiyya Kumar, Gourav Gogoi, Debabrata Saikia, Bhupen Bora, Jakir Hussain Sikdar and Ramen Kumar Sarma as people who were heading the yatra as it entered Assam from Meghalaya.