NRC row: Two more FIRs filed against Mamata Banerjee in Assam for 'creating disturbances'

Guwahati: Two more FIRs have been registered in Assam against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and members of a Trinamool Congress (TMC) delegation, which went to Silchar, for allegedly creating disturbances on the basis of religion, a senior police official said on Saturday. A total of five FIRs have been registered against Mamata in Assam since the publication of the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) on 30 July. The police said effigies of Mamata, who is opposing the NRC in Assam, were burnt and protests held against her across Assam during the day. Two police complaints were also filed against Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in West Bengal on Friday. [caption id=“attachment_2967844” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. PTI[/caption] Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Ranjan Bhuyan said the two FIRs were registered at Guwahati and Silchar for allegedly creating disturbances on the basis of religion. One FIR was registered at the Geetanagar Police Station in Guwahati on the basis of a complaint by the Assam Public Works’ Dhrubajyoti Talukdar and the other at the Udharband Police Station in Cachar by a policewoman, who was injured during an alleged scuffle with the visiting TMC members at the Silchar airport, he said. A police officer said the first FIR has been registered against Mamata and the eight-member TMC team under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language) and 298 (uttering words with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person) of the Indian Penal Code. The FIR in Cachar was registered for violating Section 144, which was in place then, and attacking a public servant on duty, he said. On 2 August, one FIR each was registered against Mamata at Panbazar and Basistha in Guwahati and at the North Lakhimpur Police Station for her alleged “instigating remarks” that threatened the unity of the country and her “attempt to create unrest” in Assam. After that, she had said in Kolkata: “We know we are living in a super Emergency. There is no democracy in the country. I am not scared. I speak for the people. They (BJP) can lodge millions of FIRs against me, I do not care.” The two complaints against Sonowal were filed by TMC MLA Mohua Moitra and MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, both members of the TMC delegation, for alleged manhandling and illegal detention at the airport after their return from Silchar. The TMC team, comprising six MPs, one MLA and a West Bengal minister, was kept under preventive detention by the Assam Police at the Silchar airport after they reached on 2 August to take stock of the situation following the publication of the NRC final draft and were sent back on 3 August.