Lagatar24 Desk
Dispur, Oct.4: Sherman Ali Ahmed, the Assam Congress MLA, was suspended on Monday just days after he was arrested for making offensive statements during a 40-year-old eviction drive. Congress said in a one-line statement that Ahmed had been suspended with immediate effect for continuously breaking party discipline.
The Congress had already issued a show-cause notice to the three-time MLA from Baghbar, for justifying the killing of eight people in Darrang district during an agitation in 1983. He referred to the eight people who were seen as protest martyrs in Assamese society as “murderers,”
Ahmed reportedly made the remarks in response to the district’s eviction drive, which resulted in the deaths of two people last month. On September 20, almost 800 households – the majority of whom were Bengali-speaking Muslims – were evicted from 4,500 bighas of land that the government claimed possession of in four locations in Dholpur, roughly 9 kilometers from Sipajhar.
His remark sparked outrage across Assam, prompting many FIRs to be lodged against him. On October 2, Ahmed was apprehended at his official residence in Guwahati.
The Assam Congress has issued a show-cause notice accusing Ahmed of making “politically motivated” statements ” with the intention of damaging the party’s image” ahead of the state’s bypolls.
It further claimed that rumours of Ahmed operating as an “agent of the BJP” are common within the party and even outside of it, and that because of his closeness to the chief minister, he is being paid to make such comments in order to undermine the Congress, particularly during elections.
The latest eviction drive in Gorukhuti, Darrang district, devolved into violence, with at least two people killed by police fire and dozens others injured in fights.
