Tura, Jul. 07: On July 5 evening, a Garo woman from Lower Nogolpara village in North Garo Hills was brutally assaulted and subjected to third-degree torture at Dudhnoi police station in Assam’s Goalpara district in connection with a coal theft case, instigating widespread protest from state Garo organisations.
SI Bishnu Bahadur Newar and woman police constable Mamata Joshi, both of whom were allegedly involved in the police violence of the Garo woman, have been suspended.
The incident sparked protests from the Garo Students’ Union, Assam State Zone (GSU-ASZ), which wrote to the Goaalpara superintendent of police requesting immediate action.
The Garo Development Council (GDC), led by chairman Alex K Sangma, condemned the woman’s brutality and demanded justice for the victim and her family.
In a letter to Goalpara SP, GSU-ASZ president Foldin Marak, vice-president Sengman Areng, and general secretary Kronel Sangma condemned the incident and called the Assam Police into question.
On Thursday, a large number of social and student organisations from across the North Garo Hills region will hold a mass protest rally in Kharkutta and Dainadubi to condemn the woman’s assault.
The FIR read, “On July 4, some Police personnel of Dudhnol Police Station called me and my husband at around 2 pm. I along with my husband arrived at the Dudhnol police station and asked them why we are called for. Then the police intimated to us that on June 25, one Dhrubananda Choudhury lodged an FIR against us alleging that on February 24, 2021, he had paid Rs 95,000 along with 29.30 tonnes of coal to my husband to deliver at Dainadubi, but my husband has not given him the money and coal.â€
