Nagaland’s commercial hub Dimapur, where an irate mob broke into a jail and lynched a rape accused on last Thursday remained far from being normal even as there were reports that several non-locals have left the town temporarily apprehending further attacks on them.
The curfew, which has been imposed in Dimapur, was lifted on Monday albeit the district administration imposed CrPC Section 144 banning gathering of more people and continued the restriction on SMS and MMS services.
The Nagaland Police has arrested 43 people so far in this incident. The Government had earlier suspended three top officials — the DC, the SP and the Jail Superintendent.
Security arrangements have been intensified in and around the town to stop any attacks on the non-locals. This, however, failed to convince the non-locals and many of them have left Dimapur temporarily apprehending further attacks.
“Thousands of people have temporarily left Dimapur in past few days due to fear psychosis. We have been appealing to people not to leave the town as there is no threat at present. However, the people are still panic stricken,” said president of the Muslim Council Dimapur A Rahman.
“There is a good improvement of the situation. We have lifted the curfew but imposed Section 144 CrPC banning assembly of more people. So far 43 people have been arrested but more arrests are in the pipeline,” said Additional DGP (law and Order) G Akheto Sema.
“The restriction on SMS and MMS had been extended for another 48 hours, till substantial improvement of the situation,” he said, adding that the police are interrogating the arrested people for getting more details about the incident.
A senior official confirmed the rape of the girl and said that although they are waiting for forensic report, preliminary medical existence confirmed it to be a rape.
This assumes significance as the victims’ family had been ruling out any rape angle to the incident and claimed that Khan was framed in the rape case by a section, which had been working against the non-locals in Dimapur.
Meanwhile, the incident rocked the ongoing session of the Assam legislative Assembly on Monday even as Speaker Pranab Gogoi asked the Government to write to the Centre to clear the controversy over it.
The controversy started after former Assam Border Area Development Minister and Congress legislator Siddeque Ahmed told a crowd on Sunday that he had prior information about the mob’s plan to break into the jail and kill the rape accused and that he had intimated this to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.
Ahmed also alleged that the brutal killing could have been avoided if the Chief Minister had taken up the matter with the neighbouring State immediately. Members of the Opposition, including the AIUDF, the AGP and the BJP legislators demanded an explanation from the Government whether the statement put forwarded by the Congress legislator is true and if true why the Chief Minister did not take up timely action to stop the unfortunate incident.
“The Centre must find out if there were any truth in Ahmed’s statement and there is no truth, there should be action against Ahmed by the State Government,” the Speaker ruled.