Morcha strike from Sunday - Leader’s arrest for burning subba house

Charred remains of the ancestral house of Trinamul leader K N Subba at Gorubathan after it was torched on Thursday night. Picture by Biplab Basak

TT, May 24: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today announced an indefinite strike in the hills from Sunday to protest the arrest of GTA Sabha member Chandra Yonzone, accused of burning down the house of Trinamul leader K.N. Subba last night.

Around 6.30pm today, members of the GTA Sabha, led by Roshan Giri, went to the Darjeeling Sadar police station and demanded that they too be arrested.

“Yonzone is innocent and was arrested by the police who came to his home late last night and aroused him from sleep,” Giri said at the police station. “We are calling an indefinite strike from Sunday and we will hold rallies all over the hills to protest the arrest. We demand that we too be arrested. We are not calling the bandh from tomorrow because of Buddha Purnima,” he said.

The summer tourism season has just begun in Darjeeling and many travellers from the plains and other parts of the country are in the hills now.

Till late in the evening, 14 GTA executive Sabha members and 17 municipality councillors had been put in preventive arrest, among them Asha Gurung, wife of Morcha chief Bimal Gurung. Police officers said the Morcha leaders were booked under Section 151 of the CrPc, a provision for preventive arrest.

In Kalimpong’s Gorubathan late last night, Trinamul leader Subba’s ancestral house, where his sister stayed, was set ablaze.

Subba and his party alleged the Morcha’s hand in it.

Chandra Yonzone after his arrest in Kalimpong on Friday. (Chinlop Fudong Lepcha)

On Wednesday, when Subba was on his way to Gorubathan, Morcha supporters blocked his way. Subba is the vice-president of the hill committee of the Trinamul Congress.

Yonzone was today produced in the court of the Kalimpong additional chief judicial magistrate Rana Dam, who remanded him in 14 days’ judicial custody.

A police source said Yonzone was charged under Section 436 of the IPC, a non-bailable section. “It concerns causing mischief by use of fire or explosive substance with the intention of causing destruction of human dwelling. If convicted, a person may be handed life imprisonment or imprisonment up to 10 years and a fine, depending on the nature of the offence,” said the source.

Today, as soon as it became known that Yonzone had been denied bail, shops in the town downed shutters.

Stakeholders in the tourism industry have termed the strike announcement “disastrous.” “The timing is disastrous. Tourists had started coming from May 20 and the town is virtually packed till June 10…. With this announcement the tourist season for this period will go for a toss,” said a tour operator on condition of anonymity.

Darjeeling gets about 3.5 lakh domestic tourists annually in addition to around 40,000 foreign travellers in summer.

Subba said this morning: “This (the house burning) is the handiwork of Morcha supporters. They had also ransacked my house in Sombarey Bazar in Gorubathan on Wednesday night…. Are the hills the personal fiefdom of Bimal Gurung?”

At Malbazar, Jalpaiguri, later in the day, he said: “Morcha leaders are apprehensive of losing support in case I enter Gorubathan and stay in my home. That is why they have been trying to stop us and burnt my ancestral house yesterday night. I have filed a complaint with police and have also faxed a letter to our party supremo and chief minister, narrating the entire incident.

On Thursday, 11 people suspected to be from the Morcha were arrested for allegedly preventing Subba from entering his home in Gorubathan.

SNS, DARJEELING/KURSEONG, 24 MAY: The Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha today threatened to go for an indefinite strike across the Darjeeling Hills, demanding release of a GTA member whom police had arrested in connection with the recent disturbances at Gorubathan. The party set a deadline up to 25 May. The shutdown would begin from 26 May if police fails to comply, it is warned.

The GJMM leaders, including the GTA members and councillors of the Darjeeling municipality, today staged an agitation in front of the Darjeeling police station and demanded that the GTA member, Chandra Yonzon, elected from Gorubathan constituency in Kalimpong sub-division, be released immediately. The GJMM activists staged an agitation in front of other police stations too and served memorandums, demanding the same.

Notably, at least 11 GJMM activists, including five girls, were arrested yesterday in connection with the road blockade stir that dragged for  eight hours near Gorubathan that stopped  the vice-president of the Trinamul Hill committee, K N Subba, from returning home last Wednesday.

“We would go for an indefinite strike from 26 May onwards and this aside, there would be ‘jail bharo’ agitation. These would continue till Mr Yonzon is released,” said the GTA member and GJMM general secretary, Mr Roshan Giri.

According to police, the ACJM court in Kalimpong has rejected bail plea of the seven arrested persons, including mr Chandra Yonzon, today.

All the eleven persons arrested were produced before the court. The rest of them were released on ‘personal recognisance bond’.

Tension still prevails at Gorubathan and all the government and non-government offices and business establishments have remained closed for the third consecutive day today. Mr Subba’s house and that of his sister were allegedly set on fire by some GJMM supporters at Gorubathan last night, a Trinamul leader from the Hills, Mr Binny Sharma said.

ENS, Kolkata, May 25 2013: THE Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) on Friday called an indefinite strike in the Hills from May 26 to protest the arrest of a GJM leader in Garubathan area of Darjeeling late on Thursday night.

Police arrested Chandra Yonjon, an elected member of Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA), for allegedly instigating violence in the area as he led a mob that set fire to the house of a local Trinamool Congress leader, K N Subba.

"Yonjon is innocent. We are in no way involved with the incident that took place in Garubathan," said GJM general secretary Roshan Giri. While police said that Yonjon led a group of Gorkhaland Personnel — a GJM-backed youth volunteer force — with rods and swords, the GJM blamed the incident on the "factional clash within the Trinamool".

"This was a factional clash of the Trinamool. One group of the party does not want the relations between the GJM and the Trinamool government to improve. So they conspired against us. We will not withdraw the strike until our leader is released," Giri added.

Since Friday morning, the GJM MLAs and members of GTA protested in front of Darjeeling police station demanding release of Yonjon. The GTA member was produced before a local court, which rejected his bail plea.

Significantly, the relations between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and GJM chief Bimal Gurung, which had soured in January, had started to improve in recent days.