Leader of Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly, Debabrata Saikia on June 3 wrote a letter to the governor of Assam requesting his attention to the recent mob lynching incidents in the state.
Highlighting the recent case of a youth named Debashish Gogoi, who was lynched by a mob in Gabhru Parbhat Tea Estate near Mariani in Jorhat, Saikia wrote that the governor should ask the Assam government to frame stringent laws to curb such ‘mobocracy’.
“I would like to request you kindly to ensure that a judicial enquiry is instituted to ascertain the facts of this latest incident. Further, you may kindly ask the Government of Assam to immediately promulgate an Ordinance to curb mob violence, pending expeditious enactment of a law for the same purpose,” Saikia wrote on June 3.
In his letter, Saikia said that while the Assam government promised to frame laws at the earliest in the wake of the Karbi Anglong incident in 2018, they are yet to take this up seriously. “Similar assurances followed from the government after the murder of Dr Deben Dutta, but the reality is that the trials of those accused in the incidents in question are still dragging on in the usual leisurely fashion. In fine, the assurances given by the Government of Assam have proved futile and, consequently, incidents of mob violence are continuing to occur unabated,” the letter noted.
Saikia highlighted a number of mob violence that rocked the state recently – including the case of Sanatan Deka who was beaten to death by a group of 5 people in Hajo, and that of Paragjyoti Neog who was similarly killed by 12 assailants in Chabua.
Saikia said that the entire state was shaken to the core when two young men, Nilotpal Das and Abhijeet Nath, were lynched by a mob in Karbi Anglong in 2018. Last year, a septuagenarian physician, Dr Deben Dutta was beaten to death in Teok Tea Estate.
He added that states like Manipur, West Bengal and Rajasthan have already framed legislation against mob violence.
