7 Tripura police axes, figure rose to 9 for failure to arrest ex-minister

Tripura government suspended seven more policemen including the officer-in-charge of West Agartala police station last night of being failed to arrest the scam accused former PWD minister of Manik Sarkar led Left Front government and senior CPI (M) leader Badal Choudhury in last three days. A day before, Superintendent of Police West Tripura Ajit Pratap Singh was suspended; DIG (Southern Range) Arindam Nath was removed from the responsibility and six Deputy Superintendent of Police were transferred on the same charge. Immediately after the suspension of SP (West) and DIG (Southern Range), a delegation of IPS officers headed by DGP of the state A K Shukla met the Chief Minister and requested him to revoke the order but Chief Minister was not agreed to it, which made the police higher-ups annoyed.

Meantime, suspension of seven more policemen last night further fueled the sentiment of the force against the government.
However, police searched each of the houses of civilian, doctor chambers including a gynaecologist clinic in the city for Badal Choudhury last evening near to BJP state office but could not make any headway rather made the dwellers of the colony unhappy. Police claimed they traced the mobile location of Choudhury in the area and within a few minutes, security forces encircled the entire locality and conducted an intensive search operation.

In the evening, the government suspended officer-in-charge of West Agartala police station D P Roy and three police personnel attached with District Intelligence Branch (DIB) for dereliction in duty. Apart from that two personal guards (PGs) of accused Choudhury were also suspected for negligence in duty and one assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Pradip Acharjee was also suspended in the same charges.

The Biplab Kumar Deb government in Tripura faced serious embarrassment after being failed to arrest Rs 164 Cr PWD scam accused the former minister of the Left Front and senior CPI (M) leader Badal Choudhury in last three days despite repeated search in all possible places by senior officers including DGP. The bail petition of Choudhury was rejected in session court three days ago but his appeal seeking bail is scheduled to be heard by high court vacation bench on Oct 21 next.

Meanwhile, the disappearance of Choudhury from cordon has put the government in trouble with his security and health. The 73 –yrs old Choudhury has been suffering from multiple ailments including heart disease and had gone for bypass surgery twice and still is under medication. In such a situation, his disappearance for two days and passing days in a stressful situation has raised the eyebrows of the government. (UNI)