New Delhi: Assam Congress spokesperson Reetam Singh who was arrested by the state police for a social media post where he called three state leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “rape accused” has been granted bail by the Guwahati high court on Friday (March 28), DY365 reported.
The Wire has reported that of the three BJP leaders named on X by Singh where he asked if “law is equal for all” – Rajen Gohain, former minister of state in the Narendra Modi Government, did have a registered case of sexual assault in 2018.
In 2019 though, the Gauhati high court had quashed those charges against Gohain after the complainant changed her previous statement. The other two leaders named by Singh in his post were MLA Manab Deka and ex BJP president Bhabesh Kalita.
Singh had been taken into custody on the complaint of the wife of BJP leader Manab Deka about the March 13 post on X. Singh was arrested based on Deka’s wife’s complaint, under sections 356(2) of BNS (defamation); 67 of the IT Act (obscene material in electronic form) and other clauses of the SC/ST Act.
Singh’s arrest, from his residence in Guwahati by a team of policemen from the state’s Lakhimpur district on March 15 kicked up a political storm. While Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma justified the police action, the opposition Congress accused him of politicising the state police force.
Following his bail on Friday, Congress MP and general secretary media in-charge Jairam Ramesh said that the Gauhati high court had found Singh’s arrest “riddled with procedural errors, evidencing the haste and illegality of the regime’s efforts to throttle his voice. Reetam was targeted by the State of Assam for his social media posts but now stands released from custody.”
“This regime must learn that no matter what they throw at our workers and leaders, we will keep fighting for the common man,” he said.
