GJM to move SC on Darjeeling net ban

Aishik Chanda  |  Express News Service  |  30th June 2017: KALIMPONG: A day after political parties agitating for Gorkhaland statehood formed a joint coordination committee to take the movement forward, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) decided to move the Supreme Court against the ban clamped on internet services in the Darjeeling hills.

"We will file a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court within a couple of days. We are at present preparing the PIL on shutdown of internet in Darjeeling hills," said senior GJM leader Samuel Gurung. 

Samuel Gurung was detained and released a few hours later after GJM activists gheraoed a Darjeeling police station on Wednesday. He said the police tried to gauge the pulse of the people before attempting to arrest GJM chief Bimal Gurung, against whom non-bailable charges have been pressed. 

"They detained me in the Singmari area of Darjeeling and tried to make me an accused in the death of three GJM leaders," he said. "If Bimal Gurung is arrested, Mamata Banerjee knows that the agitation will intensify," he added.

On the BJP dilly-dallying on the Gorkhaland issue, Samuel Gurung said: "Can the BJP declare that our demand is unconstitutional? We understand their political compulsions in the plains of Bengal, where they are growing, but a government is not there only to do politics but to take care of people's rights as well."