One arrested in Assam journalist assault case

Milan Mahanta, who is associated with a leading Assamese daily newspaper, had his hands tied to an electric pole behind his back and allegedly abused and roughed up by three men in the heart of the town on Sunday.

Sources said that the trio allegedly attacked Mahanta for filing news reports on illegal gambling activities ahead of Diwali in the area

Mirza is about 30km from Guwahati.

Local people later untied the journalist from the electric pole and took him to a medicine store for treatment.

An FIR was subsequently lodged by the journalist at Palashbari police station.

It is suspected that the attackers might have been involved in a “thriving gambling racket” in the town.

Pictures of the incident, which incidentally happened on the eve of National Press Day, had gone viral on social media, drawing widespread condemnation from not just the media fraternity but also from a cross-section of society and organisations.

“We have so far arrested one person by the name of Diganta Das in connection with the case. However, the three persons named by Mahanta in the FIR – Sanjay Thakuria, his brother Budhu Thakuria and Biswajit Das, are still absconding from the day of the incident,” Palashbari police officer incharge, Satyendra Singh Hazari, told The Shillong Times on Wednesday.

“Search is on to arrest them soon. We are raiding various places at night. It appears that they have fled the town. Their mobile phones are switched off as well,” Hazari said.