Demands severe action against culprit
SHILLONG: Arunachal Student Union Shillong (ASUS) organised a peace rally on Friday at Arunachal Bhavan in protest against the racial attack at Bengaluru on Higio Gungtey on March 6 and condemned the incident.
In a statement to the press, ASUS criticised the attack terming the attacker, B. Hemant Kumar (Criminal lawyer as well as landlord) as a bully.
The association further added that the attack is a clear case of racial discrimination toward Northeast students.
More than 300 students including Arunachal Boys Hostel Shillong, Nyokum Yullo celebration committee Shillong, Mopin celebration committee Shillong, Arunachal legal forum Shillong and others took part in the rally.
Asserting that Kumar may manipulate the law as he is a lawyer, the organisations have demanded that he should be booked in the ST/SC Atrocities Act 1989 under section 153 IPC,
The organisations demanded that his license to practice law must be revoked and he should be punished under Women Domestic Violence Act 2005 for using derogatory words against women. In this case, they have sought the intervention of the Karnakata government to punish the culprit and urged Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju to look into the matter. Stating that North East students face racial discrimination, the organisations said that that culprits engaged in such kind of activities should be dealt with iron hands so that recurrence of such incidents are nipped in the bud.
“Racism has to stop and India has to a note. Please justify all this attack on people of Northeast by calling it reverse racism,” the statement stated.
Gungtey, a student at Christ University, Bengaluru was beaten up by the lawyer. The organisations alleged that the owner hurled abuses was forced to kiss, lick Kumar’s shoes, and humiliated by his landlord, for using extra water in his rent house.
”A hair style provokes and dead body comes home, sometimes inability to speak the language lead to attack, and sometimes a dress lead to sexual assault and sometimes few litre of water land someone in hospital. These certainly not isolated cases. Racism has to stop and India has to a note. Please justify all this attack on people of Northeast by calling it reverse racism,” said Nabam Issac.