GUWAHATI: The FIR registered against Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) president Lambokstar Marngar following a complaint lodged by Cachar district BJYM (Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha) over alleged offensive banners put up by the students union in Shillong recently, has not been withdrawn and Assam police may have to eventually transfer the matter to Meghalaya.
Cachar district BJYM president Amitesh Chakraborty had last week lodged the complaint against the KSU president at Silchar Sadar police station last week after the union had put up the banners labelling “all Bengalis in Meghalaya as Bangladeshis.” The posters were removed by police and the KSU later clarified that it was not against the Bengalis of West Bengal.
Chakraborty told The Shillong Times on Wednesday “The case has been registered at Silchar Sadar has not withdrawn the case even as a request has been made (by an MLA from Shillong) to withdraw the case…..But I will take a call only after discussions with senior party leaders”.
According to Silchar Sadar police station officer in-charge, Ditumoni Goswami, said that such cases are generally transferred after the necessary investigation to the appropriate police station having competent jurisdiction, which in this case is Meghalaya.
Asked how tenable such complaints are, a senior advocate of Gauhati High Court here said, “Such cases can be lodged in a police station of a different state/district if the incident is believed to impact people in the state/district or any other place where the FIR has been lodged.”
“However, if the investigation agency, after probing all angles, thinks about transferring the case, it can do so with a prayer to the police station having competent jurisdiction,” he said.
When asked about the case, VGK Kynta, senior advocate of Meghalaya High Court, told The Shillong Times, “I will not comment on the merit or veracity of the matter at this juncture considering the sensitivity of the issue. However, every offence shall ordinarily be inquired into and tried by a court within whose local jurisdiction it was committed with reference thereof to chapter XIII of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.”
It may be mentioned that BJP MLA from South Shillong, Sanbor Shullai had requested the BJYM Cachar district president to withdraw the FIR “in the best interest of the people, state and party”. Shullai also requested senior Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to intervene and request the BJYM leader to withdraw the FIR.
Our reporter adds: The Silchar Police have registered the FIR which was filed against KSU president, the officer in charge of the Silchar Sadar Police Station confirmed on Wednesday.
The police official told this reporter that they would have to visit Shillong for inquiring into the matter.
Meanwhile, some lawyers here while speaking about the legal position of the case said that since the FIR has been filed in Silchar, all would depend on Assam police whether they want to investigate into the matter.
A high court lawyer said that the complainant in the FIR had claimed that sentiments of the people in neighbouring Assam had been hurt as was done in the case of Sushant Singh Rajput where the incident happened in Mumbai but the relatives of the actor filed an FIR in Bihar.
On the other hand, another top lawyer of the city said that FIRs from both the sides were a serious legal issue even as he added that it will be the Court which will decide on the jurisdiction of the case.
Refusing to comment anything on the matter as it is sub-judice, the top lawyer said that the it is upto the Court to decide. Lawyers also said that whether the accused would be arrested or not and what actions can be taken was the prerogative of the police and the Court.
Apart from the FIR being filed in Silchar, FIRs have also been filed against three men from Ichamati for submitting a petition to the Meghalaya Governor here in Shillong and here too the case have been registered and investigation is underway.