An eight-member delegation of the Trinamool Congress returned to Kolkata on Friday after being stopped overnight at Assam’s Silchar Airport.
Alleging manhandling and physical assault by airport authorities, Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Sukhendu Sekhar Ray told the media that officials from the Assam state administration prevented the delegation from leaving the airport. According to him, the airport authorities claimed that CrPC Section 144 had been implemented. The delegation found that more than four persons were not allowed as per the provision of the law.
Ray added that even as 77 passengers who were travelling in the same aircraft had been allowed to leave, only the six members of the Trinamool Congress team were stopped. “We told them that we will go in separate teams of two members each. Still they did not allow us,” Ray said. He said the team had to cancel a public meeting at Rajiv Bhawan in Silchar, and that the purpose of their Silchar visit was solely to meet the affected families and to understand the situation on the ground.
The delegation comprising MPs Ray, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna De Nag, Nadimul Haque, Arpita Ghosh, Mamata Thakur, West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim and lawmaker Mahua Moitra, was scheduled to visit Silchar on the issue of Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) final draft, that does not have names of 40 lakh residents of Assam.
On Thursday, Moitra allegedly assaulted a lady constable who was trying to restrain her at the Silchar Airport. Apparently, the lawmaker is seen manhandling the constable and the latter pleading with folded hands for her to calm down. Director General of Assam Police, Kuladhar Saikia has said that legal action will be taken against the Trinamool Congress delegation.
