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Maoist hand cannot be ruled out: Police

By Staff CORRESPONDENT

DIBRUGARH, Dec 28 � Police has not ruled out the hands of the Left wing extremist groups in the gruesome killing of tea estate owner Mridul Kumar Bhattacharya and his wife Rita Bhattacharya in an act of arson in Kunapather in Tinsukia district on Wednesday.

Labour and Employment Parliamentary Secretary, Raju Sahu, a prominent leader of the tea garden working communities and an MLA of Chabua LAC has speculated that Maoists could be involved in the killing and arson in Kunapather.

Sahu said that such incidents had never happened in the history of tea industry in the Dibrugarh-Tinsukia area. �Tea garden workers normally come out and stage gherao, demonstrate and raise slogans against the management if they have any demand or grievances but this kind of extreme act does not conform with the nature and behaviour of the workers. There could be the hands of Maoists or some other third parties,� Sahu said.

Superintendent of Police of Tinsukia, PP Singh today told The Assam Tribune that they had not established involvement of the Maoists yet but added that they cannot rule out their participation. �We cannot rule out anything at the moment since investigation is on. We are trying to gather the chain of events; how it started and who the leaders were,� Singh said.

It is learned that police has identified a few leaders who are reportedly in hiding and arrests could follow. � I am hopeful that we can crack the case soon,� the Tinsukia SP said. The post mortem report of the remains of Mridul Kumar Bhattacharya and his wife is likely to be out tomorrow, police sources said.

The Assam Valley branch of the Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations (CCPA) met here today and condoled the killing of Bhattacharya. AN Singh, chairman of the Indian Tea Association and CCPA in a statement said: �The gruesome act of arson is a violation of all norms of civilized society and in complete disregard of available greivances settlement norms.�

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