Chief Minister Sangma on Friday claimed that the arrest of more than 47 persons in the Tura violence case was done purely based on evidence through video footage of the mob attack incident and not based on political affiliation.
Speaking to reporters, Chief Minister Sangma said, “I want to make it very clear, we are not going by political parties or we are not even trying to say that this is the political party or that political party. All we are saying that everything will be based on evidence.”
The Chief Minister further said the government will take a call on the setting up of an independent probe into the mob attack at the CMO, Tura after getting a report from the state police.
Speaking to reporters, Sangma said, “We will wait for the initial reports that will come from the police department and only then will we be able to decide on how to move forward.”
“Yes, if it is necessary as if you look at the whole situation – if the NGOs were saying that these were not their people then who are these people – so obviously there has to be some kind of a system to find out who these people are and what are their intentions. Therefore, yes, initially prima facie it looks like a very kind of a very complicated situation which may require further investigation. But at this point in time I would say let the police do its job and how will we move forward,” he added.
Sangma also informed that he would wait for security clearance before calling the protesting groups for discussion on the issues relating to their demand for winter capital and backlog policy, since the issue has completely taken a different turn after the incident.
Sangma said that the state had witnessed so many people staging peaceful dharnas or fasting but never have they gone ahead attacking CMO, government officials and police. “This kind of culture is not there and therefore it is a serious matter from that angel,” he added.
On police intelligence indicating that the mob attack was pre-planned and a conspiracy to murder him, the chief minister however said, “That of course only DGP can tell you and only the enquiry that is going to come in will then finally give the clear picture of what it was.”
He also stated that the incident was unprecedented in one way and said, “When the CM is going with the intention to really solve the problems, we are going with the intention of doing good to the people and all the different development works that we are doing. There could be people who hate us but obviously this kind of action cannot be justified in any way and it is wrong for anybody to think that they can take the law in their hands in this manner and get away with it.”