The chief Minister PS Tamang on Friday said that the Sikkim Police has been deployed to arrest Sumanta Kumar Gupta who is protesting at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi against article 371F.
The Chief Minister said, “ Four Sikkim Police have reached Delhi ito arrest two Jantar Mantar protesters opposing Article 371F in Sikkim with non-bailable arrest warrant.”
On September 13 from Chief Judicial Magistrate in Gangtok issued a non bailable arrest warrant against Gupta.
Sikkim BJP legislators Dilli Ram Thapa from Upper Burtuk constituency and Gangtok MLA Yon Tshering Lepcha while speaking in Assembly raised the issue of two Bihar residents protesting at Jantar-Mantar against Article 371F.
Legislator Thapa also urged the State government to, ‘identify the kingpin behind the Jantar Mantar protest’, “The two Bihar residents has defamed Sikkim and created a communal disharmony among the people in the State” maintained Thapa.
In reply, CM Tamang stated, “We had received information on the Jantar Mantar protest on August 30 around 5 pm. The complaint received was against Sumanta Kumar and his associates from Gopalganj in Bihar protesting against the special provision article 371F in Jantar Mantar protest. The State Government had taken the complaint into account and the Sikkim Police had initiated inquiry. On September 9, the inquiry was completed and the case was registered in Sadar Police Station in Gangtok under IPC 153 (A), 505 and 34”
“State Government is committed on safeguarding article 371F” he added
Chief Minister informed about the details of Sumanta Kumar and said “Sumanta Kumar Gupta from Gopalganj had met Geyzing resident Amrita Chettri over Facebook, eventually they married on September 24, 2019 and initially stayed in Siliguri for few months.Thereafter, they shifted to Chandigarh looking for work and stayed in Chandigarh.”
“Upon inquiry from the girl’s parents here at Geyzing, they were married as per local customs. They then stayed in Geyzing where Sumanta worked as a vegetable seller. A year later, he left the vegetable shop to work in a hotel in Pelling, West Sikkim for two months. He briskly worked as a salesman in Geyzing before leaving Sikkim around April 2022. Around May 6, 2022 he hacked his wife’s Facebook account and started defaming her on social media. Since then, he resurfaced in the now viral video around August from Jantar Mantar protesting against Article 371F”. He added
Furthermore, CM Tamang asserted that the Sikkim defamers will be brought to the State for justice. “The government was not making a publicity stunt on the issue, rather we were after the protester and filing a case against him, there is a non-bailable warrant against him and his associates now. We are trying to find who is behind Sumanta. The call for unity in Sikkim is justified after this issue, but we do not encourage publicity stunt carried out by individuals in the name of the counter protest. There seems to be no need to publicize the issue and the fear of abrogation of Article 371F across national media”. CM Tamang