HC displeased over police role in Tripura abduction case

Agartala, June 1 (UNI) Guwahati High Court has expressed displeasure over the police action against the criminals who were charged with kidnapping a girl on January 25.

Commenting on the affidavit filed by Tripura police, the Agartala bench of the court comprising of Justices R B Mishra and U B Saha yesterday said the progress of the case and police action were not satisfactory and asked the authorities to trace the girl as soon as possible.

Submitting a progress report of the case, Inspector General of Tripura Police B K Debbarmma apprised the court that the state government has constituted a five member committee headed by DIG (southern range) D Gautam to investigate the case and the officer in-charge of Agartala Women Police station Manidipa Das has been suspended for inefficiently dealing with the case.

According to report, Surajit Singh, a resident of Agartala had kidnapped Malabika Sutradhar, a student of Bani Vidyapith HS School on her way back to home on January 25. Surajit's father Kailash Singh was arrested following an FIR filed on January 28 with Agartala Women Police station.

Later Kailash Singh was released, while the main accused Surajit remained absconding, but the case did not progress much further. Finally, on May 9, the victim's mother met chief minister and detailed the incident and fresh investigation started.

The victim's family filed a case before High Court on May 25 under Habeas Corpus, section 226 that implies plea for releasing of illegal confinement of a person and accordingly court listed Director General of Police, State home department, SP (west), Investigating Officer and abductors as respondents in the case.

Taking a strong exception to the police role in the case, the court had ordered probe and asked DGP to file a progress report, which was submitted yesterday.

Meanwhile, police arrested one Ratan Roy, resident of Dharmanagar, bordering Asom in North Tripura for allegedly providing accommodation to the kidnappers even after being aware of the crime.

UNI