JAC protests police ‘favouritism’

GANGTOK, June 8: The joint body formed by all the opposition political parties of the state has strongly denounced what it describes as police bias against them. The Joint Action Committee (JAC), which includes the Congress, BJP, CPI-M, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Sikkim Himali Rajya Parishad (SHRP) and Gorkha Prajatantric Party (GPP), accused the police of being biased towards the government and against the opposition.

Dr AD Subba, representing the SHRP referred to a recent incident in which two persons had died after falling from a government made ropeway in Dzongu recently. “No FIR was lodged and no investigation and action were taken by the police. Not even any autopsy was done. This clearly shows police are negligent in their duties and have biased attitude,” Dr Subba said. “Police should work according to the law,” he added.  In many other recent cases where presses were damaged, and vehicles of the opposition were burned, no action was taken by the police and administration, the JAC alleged.

“Not all the police officials, but few of them are biased towards the ruling government who always prevent us from taking up our political activities freely, which is not fair” said Mr Nar Bahadur Bhandari of the Congress, a former chief minister and chief convener of the JAC. “Police should always be independent and should work for the public not for the administration” he said.  JAC has prepared pamphlets against the ruling government and plans to distribute to the public from tomorrow. “We’ll distribute all this pamphlets to the mass public at Titanic Park (the heart of the town) tomorrow to make the public aware about the ruling government and its work” said Mr HR Pradhan representing the state unit of BJP.

“We’ll then reach out to all the rural areas and create awareness among the public until democracy is restored,” he added.  Police spokesperson, Mr Akshay Sachdeva, DIG Range, could not be contacted despite several attempts. [The Statesman]