Tripura West District Magistrate (DM) Dr Shailesh Kumar Yadav came under severe criticism after raiding a wedding on Monday and behaving in a crass manner with the guests. He had the guests thrashed, grabbed the groom by his collar and a person who appeared to be the Purohit was thrashed as well.
Since then, he has attempted to justify his decision despite the criticism. He invoked ‘principles of natural justice’ when questioned regarding the atrocious conduct with the guests. He further said that he will not arrest anyone without receiving their answer first. “Yes, I did say it yesterday,” (that he will have people arrested) he admitted but added that, “You have to say such things at the moment to make people understand”.
The DM also said that a show-cause notice has been served to the family. He blamed the police for not enforcing the curfew. In another video, Yadav can also be seen talking with a person in the wedding, who appears to be one of the hosts, in an extremely derogatory manner.
“You seem to be an educated person. Don’t talk like a bloody villager,” Yadav said. When the person, who said he is a surgeon, responded saying that Yadav should not talk to him in that manner, the DM threatened, “Catch hold of this guy, obstructing a public servant on duty.”
The DM also behaved extremely rudely with the police. He told a policeman, “I am bloody your District Magistrate.” Since then, he has offered an apology. “All I did was done during the night curfew period last night and was for the benefit and wellbeing of the people. My intention was not to hurt or humiliate the sentiments of anyone,” he said.
DM Agartala has tendered an apology for his behaviour. His behaviour was not appropriate but we all should also act responsibly in this pandemic time. The whole system is under pressure. We can only win if we will fight together. https://t.co/fqdv0j4Z7X pic.twitter.com/F29NkJJPz5
— Aditya Trivedi (@AdityaTrivedi_) April 27, 2021
The bride’s brother Subhrajit Deb had taken to Facebook to condemn the District Magistrate’s highhandedness. Deb informed that the wedding was being carried out after attaining all due permissions from the District Magistrate’s office itself.
Sharing pictures of the documents where permission to carry out the ceremony was granted by the Tripura West DM’s office itself, Deb confirmed that Yadav’s office had, in fact, granted them 4 vehicle passes so that they could move around smoothly (if required) during the ceremony. He wrote that all the documents were signed by the DM himself.
According to the Tripura DM, however, the hosts had violated Covid-19 norms.