Gurung aide arrested, Hills DM removed
In an apparent bid to put pressure on the GJM, the Mamata Banerjee government on Monday night arrested Anit Thapa, a GTA member and a close associate of Bimal Gurung, who was supposed to fly to Delhi on Wednesday for talks with Central leaders.
Mr Thapa was produced in the Kurseong court which sent him to judicial custody till August 19. On Monday night, 16 women Gorkhaland personnel were arrested from Gorubathan.
The indefinite bandh in the Hills, meanwhile, entered the fourth day and Ms Banerjee sent home secretary Basudeb Banerjee to Darjeeling to take stock of the situation.
Taking a major administrative measure, she also removed Darjeeling district magistrate Saumitra Mohan. He is being sent to Burdwan as DM. The GJM leaders were extremely unhappy as Mr Mohan was also looking after the GTA as principal secretary. He has also performed his task as Darjeeling DM rather well. His removal, therefore, came as a surprise. He is being replaced by Puneet Yadav, who was joint secretary, finance. To further tighten security in the hills, the chief minister is also sending joint commissioner (headquarters ) Javed Shamim as OSD (home) Darjeeling. His former Kolkata police colleague Damyanti Sen is already working as DIG, Darjeeling. Very soon, Mr Shamim and Ms Sen, who had cracked the Park Street gangrape case, may be working together in the turbulent Hills.
Reacting to the arrests, Mr Gurung said that the state government was trying to intimidate the GJM leadership by arresting his close aides. “These arrests and particularly the arrest of Anit Thapa are a vindictive act. This is to crush our democratic movement through striking fear in the ranks of the GJM,” he added. Thapa’s arrest sparked mass anger and hundreds of GJM supporters demonstrated outside the Kurseong police station and court. While the GJM intensified its movement in the hills, the state government also toughened its stand. So far, several dozen GJM supporters have been held and the outgoing DM made it clear that punitive action would be taken against government employees who did not report for duty during the indefinite bandh.
The GJM president has declared that he would talk to the Centre but not to the state government.
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