The police in eastern Assam’s Tinsukia district has arrested one person for stabbing a 48-year-old Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader on Thursday evening.
Debananda Gogoi, the BJP’s booth president of Buridihing Gain Panchayat, succumbed to his injuries at a government-run hospital in adjoining Arunachal Pradesh. His death has sparked tension in Margherita Assembly constituency, to which he belonged. The constituency is one of 47 that will go to polls in the first phase on March 27.
Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma condemned the BJP leader’s “brutal murder” and said that “such acts of violence will not be tolerated”. The CM, who flew to New Delhi on Friday, spoke with Director-General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta and directed him to book the guilty at the earliest.
“Joy Chandra Gogoi, the accused and a resident of the same village, has been arrested and efforts are on to recover the dagger used in the offence. Further investigation is also being made,” Additional DGP (Law and Order) Gyanendra Pratap Singh said on Saturday.
