Two villages near eastern Assam’s Dibrugarh town on Tuesday continued to be under curfew after the murder of a 20-year-old man on June 19 sparked communal tension.
A team of the State Disaster Response Force had fished out the body of Saurav Das from a river on the night he was allegedly murdered by members of the family of a girl he was said to be dating.
On June 20, people of Lezai area blocked the highway to Dibrugarh, demanding punishment of the murderers belonging to a different faith. It was the second such killing after that of Rituparna Pegu, who belonged to the indigenous Mising community, in Guwahati on June 12.
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“The situation has improved compared to two days ago after a meeting with all the stakeholders at the Deputy Commissioner’s office on Monday. Apart from the district administration handing over a compensation cheque to the victim’s family, a peace committee was formed,” Dibrugarh district’s Superintendent of Police Sreejith T. told
He added the curfew in Lezai and Dewanbari areas, imposed on June 20, was still on.
“We have arrested three people so far and are awaiting the post-mortem report to find out how the man was killed,” Mr Sreejith said.
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Demand for trial
The Rituparna killing – the victim’s throat was slit after an argument over a chair – had sparked protests in Guwahati and in Majuli and Dhemaji districts where the Misings have a sizeable population. Rituparna was from Dhemaji district.
“We have been demanding fast-track trial for punishing the culprits,” said Raj Kumar Morang, president of Takam Mising Porin Kebang.
On the day of Das’ murder, the Dibrugarh police had arrested four men accused in the gang-rape of a minor girl. “We have recorded the statement of the girl who was taken to a tea estate and raped,” a police official said.
Man held
Meanwhile, the police in central Assam’s Nagaon district arrested Abhinandan Nath for posting obscene and derogatory comments about Angoorlata Deka, a popular Assamese film star turned Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Batadrava Assembly constituency.
Police said the man confessed to abusing the MLA for not paying attention to his complaints about the bad road condition in parts of the constituency.