Court lock on Gurung residence

Workers load onto a vehicle furniture and other items seized from the residence of Gurung at Patlebas on Wednesday

Vivek Chhetri, TT,  Aug 02, 2018, Darjeeling: The CID on Wednesday attached the house of Bimal Gurung and wife Asha following a court order after the two leaders failed to appear in November last year.

On Wednesday, the police attached the three storied residential building of Gurung situated at Patlebas, about 4km from Darjeeling town.

The CID with help from Darjeeling police also attached movable properties like furnitures and other household items. The list of the seized items will be forwarded to court, said a police source.

Cases had been started against Gurung and other Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leaders, including Roshan Giri, on June 9 after clashes between party supporters and police a day before. The violence took place barely 100 meters from the Raj Bhavan where chief minister Mamata Banerjee was holding a cabinet meeting.

The protest spearheaded by the Morcha was against the purported plans of the state government to make Bengali language compulsory in hill schools, even though the government had not issued any written order or notification in this regard.

Following the incident, the language movement snowballed into a statehood agitation that was followed by an unprecedented 104-day general strike.

After the June 8 incident, police had started cases against Gurung and other Morcha leaders under various provisions of the arms act, explosive act and for destruction of public properties and attempt to murder and rioting among others.

The case was taken over by the CID on June 29, 2017, and a special investigation team (SIT) was formed. The chief judicial magistrate's court had directed Gurung, Giri and other leaders to appear and surrender last November.

"The accused persons failed to appear before court that day. On March 28, 2018, police prayed for declaration of absconding accused as proclaimed offender and also prayed for attachment of movable and immovable properties of the accused persons," said Pankaj Prasad, assistant public prosecutor.

The plea was accepted and "an order of attachment" to compel the appearance of accused, was passed by the CJM's court the next day.