Assam Police returned empty handed from Kolkata, failing to arrest political commentator Garga Chatterjee, after he allegedly insulted the first Ahom king Chaolung Sukaphaa.
Chatterjee, a self claimed ‘Bengali Nationalist’, who heads an organization called Bangla Pokkho had tweeted on June 17: “Why does @sarbanandsonwal regularly celebrate a Chinese invader and his invading army? Why does banned separatist group ULFA also celebrate the Chinese invader? Do real Indians know that Indian tax money is being used by BJP in Assam to put up statues of a Chinese invader?”
This led to a controversy following which Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal directed Guwahati Police Commissioner to arrest and bring Garga Chatterjee from West Bengal to Assam for posting “offensive remarks on social media about Swargadeo Chaolung Sukaphaa and Ahom community”.
The team led by DCP (Crime) Barun Purkayastha arrived in Kolkata on June 21 but they are yet to be successful in arresting Chatterjee. The Assam Police have said that they didn’t get the support from their Kolkata counterpart.
“We produced the warrant of arrest to the Kolkata Police but they could not provide us the necessary support to find out the address of Garga Chatterjee. So, we could not arrest him and our team had to come back. Barun Purkayastha and the team tried their best to execute the warrant but failed. Now we will see what legal action can be taken against him,” said Guwahati Police Commissioner Munna Prasad Gupta.
Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said that the derogatory statements had hurt the sentiments of Assamese people and he underlined the need to take legal action against offenders like these for discouraging such behaviors in future.
Sonowal further added that Chaolung Sukaphaa was the architect of the greater Assamese identity and making derogatory statements about such a great personality could not be tolerated. Saying that posting of offensive remarks on social media misinterpreting historical facts could lead to rift between different communities in an ethnically diverse state like Assam.
A case related to this has been registered in the Crime Branch of Assam Police against Garga Chatterjee along with four other such cases for making provocative statements. Apart from that, several other organizations and individuals have lodged complaints and condemned Chatterjee for the remarks.
