Bodo MLA Pradeep Brahma remanded to 7-day judicial custody

Indefinite curfew was clamped in Kokrajhar district of Assam on Thursday morning as fresh tension gripped the violence-affected district over the arrest of Kokrajhar West constituency legislator from Bodoland People's Front, Pradeep Brahma by the police late Wednesday night.

Brahma, alias Gara, representing Kokrajhar (West) constituency, was charged under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapons, 149 (unlawful assembly), 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance), 427 (causing damage), 379 (theft) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC.

He was produced before Chief Judicial Magistrate C Chaturvedi who remanded him to seven-day judicial custody.

The BPF is the ruling party in Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council and the only ally of the ruling Congress in Assam.

The legislator was arrested from his Dotoma residence in Kokrajhar district for his alleged involvement in recent violence that.
Seven cases were registered against the MLA, police informed.

BPF supporters have resorted to blockade of trains at Kokrajhar and Gossaingaon defying curfew imposed in the district.

The BPF has demanded the unconditional release of the MLA by noon or else threatened to shut down the entire Kokrajhar district indefinitely.

A Northeast Frontier Railway source informed that train services have been disrupted due to the blockade resorted to by BPF supporters.

A central team of officials led by Joint Secretary (Home) Sambhu Singh is now visiting violence-affected districts in the BTC and adjoining areas to take stock of the situation as well as relief and rehabilitation measures undertaken for the violence-displaced.