Cachar resident assaulted in Mizoram

A driver of Dakshin Krishnapur village in southern Assam’s Cachar district has allegedly been assaulted at Kawnpui police station in Mizoram.
Kawnpui falls under Kolasib district, around 119km from Silchar.
A memorandum was submitted to Cachar deputy commissioner S. Lakshmanan by the Sumo Motor Challak Samiti (Assam) on Friday demanding strict action against four persons – Lal Thanglima, a resident of Kawnpui and three police officers of Kawnpui police station.
The memorandum said the driver Bulbul Laskar (alias Afaj Uddin Laskar) was going to Aizawl from Silchar on a maxi cab with passengers on December 18. While he reached a hilly area at a location known as Sherkhan, a Mizo resident Lal Thanglima came from the opposite end in another car. Thanglima allegedly shouted at Bulbul and asked him to move back although Bulbul’s cab was fully loaded with passengers.
Nevertheless, Bulbul agreed to move back. While doing so, his car slightly collided with Thanglima’s car following which Thanglima rushed towards him and slapped him. Thanglima then asked Bulbul to repair the scratch immediately to which Bulbul convinced him that he would do that on December 19 when he would return from Aizawl after dropping the passengers.
On December 19, Bulbul came on his cab with passengers near Kawnpui police station to get Thanglima’s car repaired as decided earlier. He tried to contact Thanglima over phone, but did not get any response. Thereafter, Bulbul entered into the police station and asked one of the officers about Thanglima for an amicable settlement of the matter. The officer contacted Thanglima following which Thanglima came to the police station around half an hour later. He asked Bulbul to pay an amount of Rs. 10,000 for getting the scratch fixed to which Bulbul told him that he was not having that much money with him.

Eventually, Bulbul requested Thanglima that he would get the scratch fixed from a mechanic at Kolasib as the mechanic was known to him. But Thanglima refused to go there and asked Bulbul to pay him Rs. 5,000 on the spot and Rs. 5,000 the next day. Meanwhile, Thanglima indicated the police officers to attack Bulbul after which an officer John Lalpunonga along with two other officers beat up Bulbul with iron rods, sticks and leather belts, the memorandum said.

Later, one of the passengers from the cab entered the police station and requested the police to not beat him and he would make the payment of Rs. 5,000. Thereafter, Bulbul collected some money from the passengers and paid the amount. A petition was thereafter prepared by the police in Mizo language stating that Rs. 5,000 was paid on December 19 and another Rs. 5,000 would have to be paid on December 20, the memorandum said.

The Samiti, which brought the incident to Lakshmanan’s attention and demanded stern action against all the culprits, threatened to stage large-scale protests if the authorities did not initiate prompt measures against those involved. In response, Lakshmanan assured that necessary steps would be taken regarding the matter.