Manik Sarkar: Stupid remarks caused Tripura lynching

Manik Sarkar/ AFP

Irresponsible and baseless comments after the killing of a teenage boy fuelled a situation that resulted in the lynching of a few persons in Tripura, former Chief Minister and opposition leader Manik Sarkar said.

"Irresponsible, baseless and foolish comments after killing of a minor boy in Mohanpur (in western Tripura) fuelled to such a situation resulting lynching of few people and injuring many in Tripura," Sarkar said in a statement late on Friday.

Without mentioning the name of any ministers and leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Sarkar, who is a member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) politburo, said: "Police and civil administrations should be more careful, vigilant and active to deal with the situation and to book the rumour mongers."

A vendor from Uttar Pradesh, a musical instrument teacher, a vagabond woman and a mentally retarded woman were lynched and at least 20 people including railway officials, workers and women were assaulted by mobs in different incidents in Tripura on Wednesday and Thursday.

Police arrested more than 20 people in connection with these incidents that took place in western and southern Tripura.

BJP blamed the CPI-M "for masterminding these incidents" while the Left party and the Congress accused the ruling party ministers and leaders "for spreading rumours after the killing of an 11-year-old boy in Mohanpur resulting in subsequent incidents of lynching."

However, the ban on social media and mobile Internet continued for the third day on Saturday to prevent the spread of rumours in the state.

Law and Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath said that the CPI-M after losing power in the state is trying to create violence to put the BJP government in an awkward position and to obtain political mileage.

Meanwhile, the CPI-M and Congress separately demanded high-level probe into the violent incidents that took place over the past few days.

"Education and Law Minister should resign or he should be removed from the cabinet for spreading rumours of kidney smuggling after the killing of an 11-year-old boy allegedly by two minors on Tuesday in Mohanpur," said CPI-M central committee member Gautam Das.

Tripura Congress Vice President Tapas Dey and General Secretary Harekrishna Bhowmik said that the party would soon approach acting Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi to take action against Deb and Nath "for spreading confusing information" after the Mohanpur killing.

The Congress also demanded a judicial probe by a sitting High Court judge to probe the recent incidents of violence and lynching and called for an all-party meeting to deal with the prevailing situation in the state.

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