A leader of the Assam unit of Congress said he was bitten by a police officer during a protest march in Guwahati on Friday (December 20, 2024).
A scuffle with the police ensued when scores of Congress members marched to protest the death of advocate and party leader Mridul Islam on Wednesday. He succumbed to sickness induced by tear gas shells fired by the police during a ‘Raj Bhavan Chalo’ programme to raise a slew of local and national issues.
“The police stopped us on our way to a complex to pay homage to Mridul Islam. An Assam Police Service officer pulled me and bit me on my shoulder, leaving a scar under the coat I wore,” Ashwini Kumar Mahanta, the party’s senior spokesperson said.
Demanding justice, Congress shared a video of him narrating the incident and showing where he was “bitten”. Mr. Mahanta said he knew the police officer but could not recall his name.
After the incident, he and several other Congress leaders were taken to a hockey stadium and detained.
“The police took me to a hospital after repeated requests. A doctor prescribed medicines and injections. I asked the police to buy the medicines as the pain was inflicted by one of them. They did not get me the medicines but took me back to where I was detained,” Mr. Mahanta said.
The police did not react to his allegations. Senior police officers did not respond to calls or messages.
Among the Congress leaders detained was the party’s State president Bhupen Kumar Borah. Youth Congress national president, Uday Bhanu Chib was put in “preventive detention” at the hotel he had checked into. Party members who gathered outside the hotel said he was not allowed out for more than 16 hours.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma slammed Congress for allegedly trying to create unrest in Guwahati.
“For the past few days, Congress has been trying to create a situation where the police are forced to open fire. There is a contest going on among two three Congress leaders to emerge as a bigger leader and in that contest, they have held the people of Guwahati to ransom,” he told journalists.
“The agitation of political parties should be in the election boxes [EVMs]. They [Congress] want to create unrest but we won’t allow this to happen,” he said.
