Court issues arrest orders against Gurung, 7 others ...will ease the jurisdictional -and the legal -problems... two arrested GJM leaders

Deep Gazmer | TNN | Sep 7, 2017, DARJEELING: A belligerent GJM chief Bimal Gurung on Wednesday appealed to party rebels Binay Tamang and Anit Thapa to "rectify their mistakes" and return to the party fold even as his legal woes kept piling.

Implicated in three UAPA cases, Gurung suffered a fresh jolt when a local Darjeeling court issued an arrest warrant against him and seven others on Wednesday .The CID had moved court seeking their arrest warrant in a June 9 FIR lodged in Darjeeling Sadar police station related to widespread arson and violence. The key GJM leadership -Roshan Giri, Gurung's wife Asha, Ashok Chhetri, Tilak Roka, D K Pradhan, Prakash Gurung and Amrit Yonzon -also face impending arrest. ADG (law and order) Anuj Sharma said this relates to Darjeeling PS case No. 11517.

The warrant, police say , will ease the jurisdictional -and the legal -problems that led to a Sikkim-Bengal face-off during the September 1cross-border raids.

To keep up the heat on Gurung, police also lodged a separate FIR against his kin who are members of a trustee board that runs a school in Patlebas tea garden area. The state land revenue department has lodged a formal complaint that six acres had been forcibly taken by the trustee board to run the school.

Meanwhile, police have arrested two more GJM leaders from the Kurseong area for fermenting trouble in the Hills. The accused have been identified as Samir Subba who was picked up from the Chimni area and Anil Rai who was picked up from Majuka area. Police said both were taken to Siliguri for questioning. The court-issued warrant and the fresh FIR come on a day when Gurung released an audio tape that was publicly aired in Darjeeling Chowk Bazar. The audio appealed to the rebel leaders, Binay and Anit, to "rectify their mistakes and return to the party fold".Else, he warned, they will be sucked into the Bengal's political quagmire. In a belligerent pitch, he even said, "How long will you be able to stay with Bengal's security? If you betray the Gorkhaland cause, your children will spit on you. They will never forgive you."

Tamang kept up his anti-bandh stance."If he is a true leader of the people, he should come out of hiding and lead people from the front. Let him come to fore and I will accept him as my leader too. I too want Gorkhaland but it cannot be at the cost of hunger, pain and suffering," he said. Gurung's audio message caused its moment of confusion. Police alerted by it had raided the meeting venue, even searched the podium, only to find nothing.

Gurung's statement comes only a day before the Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee is set to meet on Thursday to chart out the protest roadmap. The GMCC, a conglomeration of 13 political and apolitical outfits pitching the Gorkhaland cause, had largely been defunct after its primary constituents -GJM, GNLF and JAP --chose to attend the first bilateral dialogue on August 29.

(With inputs from Dwaipayan Ghosh in Kolkata)