New Delhi: Assam Congress spokesperson Reetam Singh has been 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,” and asked if “law is equal for all”.
Among the three BJP leaders named on X by Singh, 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 Guwahati high court had quashed those charges against Gohain after the complainant changed her previous statement. State BJP president Dilip Saikia has recently visited Gohain’s house, kicking up speculation in the state’s political circles that he might be brought back to the party’s active work in the run-up to the next Assembly elections.
Singh’s arrest, carried out at his residence in Guwahati by a team of policemen from the state’s Lakhimpur district on March 15 after a high drama, has kicked up a political storm, with Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma justifying the police action citing that it was based on a complaint by the wife of one of the BJP leaders named by Singh in his post under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Act, while the opposition Congress accusing him of politicising the state police force.
Soon after Singh’s arrest, Congress national spokesperson Jairam Ramesh took to X to oppose Singh’s arrest and called the social media post “perfectly reasonable”. Chief minister Sarma responded to Ramesh’s post by stating that he has been taken into custody for a “caste-based insult directed at a Dalit woman”.
“If you justify calling the husband of a Dalit woman a rapist as a ‘perfectly reasonable’ social media post, it speaks volumes about the direction in which you people have taken the Congress party,” Sarma, who also is the state home minister, referred to an earlier accusation made by his government; against the wife of state Congress leader and member of parliament, Gaurav Gogoi and claimed that it would be “exposed by September”.
The state goes to polls in early 2026 wherein Gogoi is being seen by political observers as one of the biggest challenges to Sarma.
According to news reports quoting Lakhimpur Police, Singh had been taken into custody on the complaint of the wife of BJP leader Manab Deka about the March 13 post on X. While a large contingent of Lakhimpur Police stood outside Singh’s Ulubari residence, Singh continued to put out posts on social media with photos of the police presence outside his house stating that inspite of asking several times for a warrant and a legal notice against him, the police had failed to show any, and instead demanding entry in to his residence. He stated that such action was against a recent Gauhati high court order “making it compulsory for police to give a notice”.
“I am an advocate and I will comply with any investigation. But I won’t go with the police if they are here without arrest or warrant simply on instructions of Himanta Biswa Sarma,” Singh said on X.
After several hours, when party leader Gogoi reached Singh’s residence, for which he opened the door, police barged inside and dragged him into a waiting vehicle in full media glare.
Gogoi, deputy leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, thereafter, said on X that his colleague was dragged by the police on a day when Union home minister Amit Shah was in the state. “A team of Lakhimpur police have come to Guwahati to take custody of Congress spokesperson Reetam Singh. When I went to his residence, I saw how he was brutally dragged away and was not allowed to speak to me,” Gogoi said. “Is home minister Amit Shah aware that BJP thugs have brutally beaten up two Assam constables in broad daylight a few days ago and yet they have not been arrested.”
Later, Lakhimpur superintendent of police Mihirjit Gayan told news agency PTI that based on Deka’s wife’s complaint, he had been arrested 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. “We have arrested him under relevant sections of law. He is being brought to Lakhimpur now,” Gayan said.
Deka, prior to joining the BJP was in the Congress. In 2015, he was accused by his mother-in-law of attempting to murder her. However, no charges were framed against Deka as the complaint was later withdrawn following an agreement between the two parties. Seen close to Sarma, he later moved to the BJP.
