CPI(M) demands probe into several bikes with UP registration number parked in govt-run hostel

Agartala, Sept 16: The opposition CPI(M) has demanded a probe into several motorcycles with Uttar Pradesh registration number parked at the premises of a state government-run hostel ahead of Assembly elections due early next year.

Several bikes with Uttar Pradesh registration numbers were parked at the government-run Shahid Bhagat Singh Youth Hostel near the Civil Secretariat for the past one week.

In a letter addressed to the Tripura Chief Secretary, CPI(M) state secretary Jitendra Choudhury on Thursday said several bikes with an Uttar Pradesh registration number have been parked in the premises of a government-run hostel since last week.

"The government has not yet divulged whose name the bikes are registered in UP, why did the owners of these bikes allow those to be transported to Tripura, by whom those bikes were transported here... , '' he wrote to the chief secretary.

Choudhury said, "Before the last Assembly election in 2018, BJP had distributed among its workers hundreds of bikes. Those bikes were used to carry out repression on the opposition supporters and subvert democratic rights of the common people".

He said as the state Assembly election is due early next year, the people have reason to apprehend the bikes would be "misused to loot the voting rights" of the people, particularly the opposition party supporters in the Assembly election 2023.

"... It is fervently requested to order for an impartial inquiry with competent authority to ascertain who procured these bikes and for what purpose and whether those were transported to Tripura legally", he said.

Earlier, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev wrote a letter to the DGP demanding a probe into the procurement of several bikes bearing UP registration number in the state.

"We have not received any complaint or communication from any side in the presence of bikes bearing UP registration number. Moreover, the presence of bikes having UP registration number in Agartala is not an unusual matter", Additional Superintendent of Police (West), Anirban Das told PTI on Friday.

Police will act if any specific complaint or instruction comes to its knowledge, he added.