Assam police file FIR against Mamata Banerjee over comments on NRC

Police in Assam on Wednesday filed a case against West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee for her statements about the publication of the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.

“We have registered a case against her after complaints from a local organisation,” said Ghana Kanta Bhuyan, officer in charge of the North Lakhimpur police station in Lakhimpur.

The case, which officially is called a first information report or FIR, has been registered under laws dealing with criminal conspiracy and promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, or residence.

“Her statement on the NRC after she met home minister Rajanth Singh in Delhi could vitiate the atmosphere here (Assam) and lead to tensions between groups,” said Sudipta Hazarika, general secretary of the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Parishad, who filed the complaint.

“She is trying to provoke Biharis and the Bengalis against the Assamese through her statements. Her statements are against the sentiments of the Assamese people,” he said.

Around 40 lakh people, mostly Bengali-speaking Muslims and Hindus, did not find their names in the draft NRC, which was updated to ascertain the number of illegal immigrants in Assam.

“Anybody can lodge an FIR. Organisations who are attacking Mamata Banerjee have themselves branded people who are out of the draft already as foreigners. How can they do that when there are cases where two people of one family are in and the other two are out of the draft?” said SS Mustafa, general secretary, Trinamool Congress, Assam.

Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday had said the NRC could lead to a “bloodbath and a civil war in the country”.

An eight-member team of the Trinamool Congress, including six MPs, is expected to arrive in Assam on Thursday to take stock of the situation and meet those who have been left out of the NRC draft.

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First Published: Aug 01, 2018 20:20 IST