Kokrajhar: The Assam police on Saturday morning arrested former BPF MLA Hitesh Basumatary on charges of possessing illegal arms and trying to float a new rebel outfit.
Police claimed a huge cache of arms including one AK series rifle and one M-16 rifle were recovered from the house of Basumatary at Mushalpur in Baksa district during a search by Kokrajhar police.
Police also arrested two other Bodo leaders– Daorao Dekhreb Narzary, working president of Bodoland Janajati Suraksha Mancha (BJSM) and Bikram Daimary, president of Bodoland Contractors’ Association (BCA).
The trio were arrested on charges of suspicious acts of forming a new militant outfit in BTR.
Sources said the working president of BJSM and former EM of Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC) Daorao Dekhreb Narzary was arrested from his residence in Kokrajhar in the wee hours on Saturday.
Ex-MLA Hitesh Basumatary was arrested early this morning from his Mushalpur residence in the Baksa district. He was later brought to Kokrajhar for questioning.
The police team recovered an AK-47 rifle, an M-16 rifle, two magazines and 126 rounds of ammunition from his residence said an official.
On the other hand, the president of the Bodoland Contractor Association Bikram Daimary was arrested from the residence of his father-in-law under the Sapkata police outpost of the Gossaigaon sub-division in the Kokrajhar district.
Nabanita Sarma, Additional SP, Kokrajhar claimed that a group of people were trying to float a new militant outfit in BTR.
She said the police based on specific input arrested three persons–DD Narzary, Hitesh Basumatary and Bikram Daimary for their alleged move to float a new militant outfit.
She also said out of the three arrested persons two have been remanded for five days by the police for interrogation while the third one has been sent to jail.
She further said cross-examination was going on and everything will come to light after the investigation is over.
Sharply reacting to the police action, the president of Bodo National Students’ Union (BONSU), Bonjit Manjil Basumatary said the Bodo leaders have been arrested by police on false charges.
“There is no iota of truth in the claim made by police that arms and ammunition were recovered from their houses. This is a completely baseless charge,” Basumatary said.
He said it could be a conspiracy hatched by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to suppress the voice of people against the government’s wrong policies.
He said the working president of BJSM Daorao Dekhreb Narzary raised voices against the government’s move to de-reserve ST constituencies in the delimitation process.
He further said Narzary used to raise his voice for the protection of tribal belts and blocks and illegal encroachments in tribal lands.
He demanded that Narzary and other arrested leaders be released without any condition.