Gangtok: Melli police have arrested four individuals in connection with the assault case of KN Rai on Saturday morning.
Sikkim police sources informed that they are looking for another three. Three persons were arrested from Kubindey Forest, while the fourth accused was apprehended near Melli Gumpa. The names of the arrested will be made public in a press conference today, informed a police source.
Charges were invoked against them under IPC Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 341 (wrongful restraint), 324 (causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons), 427 (mischief causing damage), and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention).
Three individuals involved in the incident are still at large. Rai was attacked in a broad-day light at Melli on Friday.
Meanwhile, both the SDF and SKM party have given a deadline of 24 hours to the Sikkim Police to find the attackers. In a late-night protest, SDF supporters took to the streets of Melli on Friday evening demanding ‘justice for KN Rai’. SKM’s spokesperson and CM’s political secretary Jacob Khaling had declared to quit politics if the attackers were not arrested.
Meanwhile, SDF party supremo Pawan Kumar Chamling also condemned the incident and lamented government’s failure in controlling political violence.
A press statement issued in this regard reads: “I am horrified by the brutal attack on my colleagues Shri KN Rai, Dr. Shiv Kumar Timsina, Shri Chandra Khaling, Shri Benjamin Rai, Shri Bharat Rai at Melli this afternoon. I strongly condemn this heinous crime and demand immediate justice for the victims. We are at a loss for words to express our shock, anguish, and disappointment. Attacks on us have become the order of the day. The government has completely failed to bring this political violence under control”.
Chamling cited this incident to not be a ‘political violence unleashed on SDF by the SKM party’. “We have been repeatedly reporting to the authorities concerned from MHA, His Excellency the Governor of Sikkim to the DGP about these violent incidents in which several of our innocent people have been assaulted. However, unfortunately, the perpetrators have been allowed to go scot-free every time, thus encouraging and emboldening them. Not a single person has been arrested”.
Chamling highlighted KN Rai to have been a myelofibrosis patient for a long time. “He has sustained multiple injuries and has been coughing up blood. Other victims have also sustained several injuries”.
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