K.L. Tamta: Forced into ‘Gandhigiri’?

Jan. 6: The continuous restraint that police have been forced to show — to the extent that Pradeep Pradhan who is wanted for violence in Rohini had to be let go — has left them “depressed”, the inspector-general of the force in north Bengal, K.L. Tamta, said in Raiganj today.

Tamta said when he heard that Pradhan, a Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader, accused of rioting, was at the Bagdogra Airport waiting to take a flight to Delhi, he had asked a deputy inspector of police, Pradip Dutta, to arrest him. “But after that you know what took place,” said the inspector-general here.

Pradhan was allowed to fly to Delhi after Morcha president Bimal Gurung threatened with “dire consequences” if the arrest was made. “In the larger interests of society, Pradhan was let off,” Tamta said.

Stressing that the morale of the police was “still high”, he said the force was “depressed” at being restrained. “Why are we depressed? We, the police, have the constitutional responsibility to protect life and property and prevent crime and maintain law and order. And what is going on is blackmail,” Tamta said.

He was referring to the manner in which Morcha supporters were having their way with the police remaining mere spectators.

“When Bimal Gurung says that the hills will be in flames, why should the hills be in flames? We are upholding the law. One man cannot go around setting houses on fire, beating people up and doing all sorts of unconstitutional things,” Tamta said sitting at the traffic booth at Siliguri More.

He said the police were alert and active, but the “inaction” was creating a wrong impression. “We are being slapped on one cheek and we are offering the other. We have to do this Gandhigiri because of some compulsions,” he said.

In Siliguri, the CPM submitted a memorandum to Darjeeling superintendent of police Rahul Srivastava, urging him to arrest the accused in the two incidents of violence in Rohini. “The police should act like they did while arresting the accused in the lynching of the Morcha leader,” said Jibitesh Sarkar, a state committee member of the party. “We fear that any lackadaisical role on the part of the police may lead to serious repercussions and retaliation.”

On Thursday, a few hours after one of its leaders were lynched in Rohini, Morcha supporters torched 20 houses and a DGHC bungalow to avenge the death. They also beat up the murder accused on the Kurseong court premises. Pradhan’s name figures in the arson and the assault cases.