GUWAHATI, March 22 � Irate public set fire to a tea estate at Rani on the city outskirts (under Palasbari Police Station) after the owner had shot dead a teenager of the locality this morning. The mayhem continued for hours even in the presence of police who had a tough time controlling the violent mob.
Police later arrested the owner of Rani Tea Estate, MK Bhattacharya.
According to eyewitness accounts and a corroborating police version, trouble began after the tea estate owner assaulted a woman worker, Jogmaya Bodo, engaged in a nearby NREGA project who was using the road inside the estate to reach her destination. This led to resentment among the local people who gheraoed the owner�s residence, demanding an explanation. A heated argument followed during which the owner fired several rounds from his SBBL gun, killing Pradip Murari (15) on the spot besides injuring three others.
�The deceased died on the spot while three others also received bullet injuries,� HK Nath, Additional SP, Kamrup, said.
It was after the firing that police arrived at the spot. CRPF personnel were also deployed to control the situation. By then the incensed crowd had set fire to the estate factory, some quarters, several vehicles and other property besides damaging the residence of the owner by throwing stones. Total anarchy and chaos prevailed as the mob comprising several hundred people prevented the fire tenders from entering the estate campus. The fires continued to burn till evening. Police was also compelled to use tear gas shells at times to disperse the violent crowd.
Police said that it was unable to get the fire tenders inside fearing an escalated retaliation by the mob. �We thought it prudent not to get the fire tenders in, as any further deterioration in the situation could have resulted in police firing and more casualties,� a police officer said. This, however, raises questions over the police�s ability to handle and control mob violence.
A section of the mob was also seen brutally killing and taking away pigs and goats from inside the estate campus.
Our Azara Correspondent adds: The injured have been identified as Suren Bodo, Katiram Rabha and Jagadish Murari who received bullet wounds when the estate owner, MK Bhattacharya, opened fire. They are undergoing treatment at the Guwahati Medical College Hospital (GMCH). Jogmaya Bodo, who was assaulted by him earlier, was also said to be injured.
The deceased, Pradip Murari, hailed from the nearby Rajapanichanda area.
The accused has been taken into police custody and was being kept at the Palasbari Police Station.
The situation in the area continued to be tense but was under control by evening. After the police took the estate owner away in its custody, the local people from areas like Rani, Patgaon, Jobe, Andherijuri, Sajjanpara, etc., held a meeting demanding a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the family of the deceased and Rs 5 lakh each for the families of the injured. They also called for an impartial, high-level inquiry by the Government besides death penalty for the accused.
The local MLA, Ramendra Narayan Kalita, who was among those who had visited the area, assured the people that the accused would be punished as per law. Guwahati MP Bijoya Chakravorty also visited the area.
The Kamrup Deputy Commissioner, meanwhile, announced a magisterial inquiry into the entire incident.
The Assam Tea Tribes Students� Association (ATTSA), while condemning the incident, held the estate owner responsible for the incident and called for his punishment. It also urged the State Government to look into the livelihood aspect of the workers of the estate, as its property got destroyed in the fire.
