The first day of the Tripura Assembly session was rocked by the issue of television journalist Santanu Bhowmik’s murder. Bhowmick was fatally attacked at Mandwai, near Agartala, on September 20. Opposition members indulged in a verbal spat with Treasury Bench members, demanding a CBI probe into incident.
The arrest of militant outfit All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) Chief Ranjit Debbarma for his alleged inflammatory speech was also a matter of debate.
This is the last Assembly session for Tripura, before the State goes to elections in February 2018. Six Opposition MLAs who joined the BJP from Trinamool Congress on August 9 — within a year of their earlier defection from Congress — demanded present party recognition in the Assembly.
Opposition member MLA Ratan Lal Nath who announced his allegiance to BJP without resigning from Congress, raised the Santanu Bhowmik murder issue. “The government has constituted SIT, ignoring huge demand [sic] for CBI probe to protect the perpetrators,” he was heard saying during Zero Hour.
Mr. Nath was supported by other opposition members, who were countered by ruling CPI(M) MLAs. Amidst the uproar, Chief Minister Manik Sarkar defended the Special Investigation Team (SIT) and urged everyone to have patience till ongoing investigation was completed.
Former Leader of Opposition Sudip Roy Barman, who led the defection from the Congress last year and the Trinamool Congress this year, questioned the arrest of ATTF Chief Ranjit Debbarma, while others facing the same charge were not touched. Mr. Debbarma was arrested on the charges of delivering an inflammatory speech at a meeting in Khowai.
