SHILLONG, Oct 28: Three persons, alleged to be supporters of the Congress party, who were reportedly part of the mob that attacked a house belonging to an NPP worker, have been arrested and sent to judicial custody by the district court in Tura.
At the same time, West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Ram Singh has ordered a magisterial inquiry into Wednesday’s clash in Rajabala. The probe will be conducted by Jagdish Chenali, SDO of Dadenggre Civil Sub-Division, and the report is to be submitted within 10 days.
According to West Garo Hills Superintendent of Police, VS Rathore, initially four persons were detained but one was let off while the three, who allegedly claimed to be Congress supporters, were placed under arrest for their involvement in the attack on the house of Hasan Ali, headman of Garodubi village and an NPP worker.
The three arrested persons are Ismail Hoque, Aminul Islam and Sofior Rehman, all hailing from Rajabala.
Around 100 other individuals, who were allegedly involved in the clash and stone pelting, have been identified and named by the victim’s family and supporters from eyewitness accounts and video footages.
Police mention that preliminary findings indicate that the trouble mongers came prepared armed with stones and other sharp objects.
The state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), FR Kharkongor said Section 144 of the CrPC has been clamped and police personnel are patrolling the areas. The West Garo Hills Superintendent of Police is monitoring the situation.
“The situation is under control,” Kharkongor said, adding the seemingly unprovoked incident, which occurred due to rivalry between NPP and Congress supporters, was quickly brought under control.
He said the election machinery is taking stock of the arrangements for the by-elections to ensure that people can cast their vote in a free and fair atmosphere on October 30.
The CEO said the Election department will deploy four companies of the Central Armed Paramilitary Forces (CAPFs) to vulnerable locations. There are 29 vulnerable polling stations in Rajabala, ten in Mawphlang and seven in Mawryngkneng.
There will be direct webcasting in 16 polling stations across the three constituencies.
Given the threat issued by the outlawed HNLC, the East Khasi Hills district police have been instructed to deploy CAPF for area domination. There will also be long-range patrolling in vulnerable areas. In addition, security will be provided to the candidates round-the-clock.
Kharkongor said that all the 58 polling parties deputed in Rajabala have already left for their respective centres on Thursday with the approval of ECI since the polling stations are quite far from the district headquarters.
The CEO added that polling stations in Mawphlang and Mawryngkneng were in close proximity and so the polling parties would leave on Friday.
Kharkongor also said that the ECI has made it mandatory that polling agents of all political parties have to be either fully or partially vaccinated.
“If not vaccinated they should at least have a negative RT-PCR report. The East Khasi Hills DC has coordinated with the Health department to set up special camps one each at Mawryngkneng and Mawphlang to collect the samples for the RT-PCR tests of polling agents and those who test positive will have to be replaced,” he said.
“Engineers from the Electronics Corporation of India Limited have been roped in to make replacements in case any EVM malfunctions,” the CEO said, adding that each constituency will have one model polling station and one women-only polling station.