Lakhipur MLA visits woman vendors' houses; Durba Paul gets interim bail

A Congress team led by Lakhipur MLA Rajdeep Goala, on Thursday, visited the house of two vendors Gracy Hmar and Lalmounpui Hmar (who were assaulted in Silchar on November 24) and provided financial help to the women.

The vendors – Gracy and Lalmounpui, residents of Hmarkhawlien village in Cachar district, were brutally beaten up at a roadside market at Jail Road (near Oriental High School) in Silchar on November 24 for allegedly stealing a stray dog to sell its meat. An FIR was lodged on December 5 following a video of the assault surfaced on social media.

The video, which was shared by a huge number of users on social media, shows a girl identified as Durba Paul abusing, threatening and assaulting one of the vendors. Two others identified as Priya Mazumder and Sagnick Gupta were present at the spot. All of them were absconding after the FIR was lodged. Priya was arrested on December 21 from a house at Tarapur and sent to judicial custody by a court in Silchar on December 22.

On Thursday afternoon, Rajdeep Goala along with Silchar district Congress president Pradip Dey and Cachar ST Cell president Stephen L. Hmar and few others visited the house of Gracy and Lalmounpui and provided financial help and some food items to them.

Rajdeep Goala, who vociferously condemned the incident, said assaulting the vendors was “totally unacceptable”. It seems like there is no safety for women in Silchar, he said.

He said he will speak to the authorities about the matter so that the culprits are arrested and the women get justice soon. He also assured his complete co-operation to the assaulted vendors.

Pradip Dey said a team of the Congress would meet Cachar superintendent of police Rakesh Roushan and Cachar deputy commissioner S. Lakshmanan over the matter. He demanded that all those involved be arrested at the earliest.

Members of few other groups including Fanjowbam Lokenath from the Manipuri Youths Front Assam, Bikram Sarkar and Tapash Nath from Stand for People were also present.

Gracy (who suffered a miscarriage days after the incident) and Lalmounpui are recovering.

Meanwhile, sources said Durba had perhaps got interim bail from a court. A picture of Durba saying she has got an interim bail surfaced across social media platforms on Thursday afternoon. Interim bail is like a temporary bail which may be granted to a person till the time his/her application for anticipatory bail or regular bail is pending before a court.

Sharing his reaction, Fanjowbam Lokenath told Barak Bulletin that it was really unfortunate that the police could not nab the accused (Durba Paul). All those involved in the assault must be punished as per law, he said.

Police sources in Silchar, however, said there was no information about the acceptance of the bail.