Guwahati: The Assam government on Tuesday said it will not interfere in judicial matters of cases involving leaders and cadres of militant groups engaged in peace talks.
Minister for Panchayat and Rural Development Rockybul Hussain told the Assembly that while the state government gave full support to talks between the Centre and militant groups, it was up to the judiciary to decide bail pleas and related issues of arrested militants.
On the peace talks between the Ranjan Daimary faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland and the Centre, Hussain said that the central government’s interlocutor P C Haldar had held several rounds of talks with Daimary, who is lodged in Guwahati Central Jail.
“NDRF(R) had in August 2011 declared unilateral ceasefire and so the Centre entrusted Haldar to play the role of interlocutor. We have given our support to the talks,” he said.
Hussain said that the CBI was investigating the October 2008 serial blasts in various parts of Assam, in which Daimary is an accused.
Earlier during zero hour, All India United Democratic Front member Sherman Ali Ahmed said that militant leaders who were holding peace talks should not be treated like VIPs.
“We welcome the peace talks but we believe that negotiations can take place even while they (militant leaders) are in custody. The government should review its policy,” Ahmed said.
He said while Daimary was the prime accused in the October 2008 serial blasts in which over 100 people were killed, ULFA leaders were accused in the Independence Day blast in Dhemaji in 2004 when scores of school children were killed.
“Today the government is negotiating with militants who committed such crimes. Tomorrow they will be treated as VIPs … What will the kin of the serial blasts victims or the parents of the innocent children who died in Dhemaji feel when they see the perpetrators being treated like VIPs?” he asked.
“Do we want to create more people like Ranjan Daimary and (ULFA leader) Paresh Baruah?” Ahmed questioned.
The AIUDF leader said the Forum for Terrorists Victim Family, Assam, floated by family members of victims of terrorists attacks in the state, had objected to grant of bail to Daimary.
The Gauhati High Court heard the bail plea of Daimary, chief of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) last Saturday and is expected to give its verdict April 3.
Daimary’s lawyers had moved the petition in 2011 after his arrest, saying it will expedite the proposed peace talks between his NDFB faction and the central government.
Forum for Terrorists Victim Family, Assam – an organization floated by family members of all the victims of terrorists attacks in Assam – had however raised strong objections in granting bail to the rebel leader.
“It will be a gross injustice to us if the court grants bail to Daimary. We have lost our family members during the serial blasts. Our family members died without any fault of theirs. Ranjan Daimary is responsible for the crime and he must get exemplary punishment,” said Indranil Kalita, publicity secretary of the Forum while addressing the media here.
“We are expecting severe punishment for Daimary, who had killed so many people. All the members of the terrorist victims’ families will lost faith on the judicial system of the country if bail is granted to him,” said Kamala Choudhury, who lost her husband in the 2008 blasts.
“How can the court release him on bail? My husband was an innocent person. Should not I get justice from the court for the death of my husband?
“I want to know what crime my husband had committed for which he was killed. The CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) had named Daimary as the main culprit for the serial blasts-this indicates that he should get severe punishment like death penalty for killing so many innocent people,” she said.
Another victim, Daisy Rani Kalita, citing the Supreme Court verdict on the 1993 Mumbai blasts, said: “When even a prominent actor like Sanjay Dutt could not even evade the punishment, how can Ranjan Daimary get bail after killing over so many innocent people in Assam?”
“If it is for the sake of peace talks, the government must convince Daimary to continue the talks process from inside the jail,” said Kalita, who also lost her husband in the 2008 serial blasts in Guwahati.
The Forum also threatened to launch a movement across the state if Daimary is released on bail. (Agencies)