Cop dies in Puja assault - Mirik ASI was stoned by drunken youths

ASI Amod Gurung

TT, Oct. 24: A 40-year-old assistant sub-inspector of police in Darjeeling's Mirik who was assaulted on Ashtami evening by a group of drunken youths over a road rule violation died today.

ASI Amod Gurung and other on-duty policemen had stopped two motorbike-borne youths at Mirik Bazaar, 50km from Siliguri town, for speeding.

"Gurung spotted a two-wheeler moving at high speed and stopped it. There were two youths on the motorcycle. They were warned against rash driving and told to furnish the two-wheeler's documents," said Darjeeling police chief Amit P. Javalgi.

According to Javalgi, an SUV carrying seven other youths pulled over next to the motorcycle."They were all part of the same group. As the policemen asked for the papers of the two-wheeler again, the youths hurled bricks and stones at the assistant sub-inspector," he said.

As other policemen rushed to Gurung's rescue, the nine youths ran away, leaving the vehicles behind.

Gurung was taken to the block health centre in Mirik and later that night, shifted to a nursing home in Siliguri.

Javalgi said a case had been registered at Mirik police station and all seven youths who were in the SUV arrested. #Police sources said they were yet to ascertain whether the accused youths had any political links.

The police across the state have come under attack several times in the past two years. On most occasions, they have been targeted allegedly by Trinamul members or by groups instigated by ruling party leaders.

At least two policemen have died at the hands of Trinamul activists and supporters since 2013. Calcutta police officer Tapas Chowdhury was shot dead during a clash in front of a Garden Reach college over student union elections in 2013.

Amit Chakrabarty, an officer posted in Birbhum's Dubrajpur, died last year after a bomb was hurled at policemen during a Trinamul faction clash.

Last year, the then officer in charge of Parui police station in Birbhum, Prosenjit Dutta, was seriously injured after bombs were hurled at his vehicle at Chowmandalpur village by suspected BJP activists. Earlier this year, a Trinamul leader in the same district was accused of slapping a sub-inspector when the officer objected to his misbehaviour inside a police station in Bolpur.

In April this year, alleged Trinamul-backed goons shot at a sub-inspector attached to Girish Park police station during the elections to the Calcutta Municipal Corporation.