Man, booked for 'defaming' Tripura CM, claims BJP supporters set his house on fire
Agartala: Almost two weeks after he was booked for allegedly defaming Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on social media, Anupam Paul has taken to Facebook again, claiming that his ancestral house in Gomati district was set on fire by the supporters of the BJP.
Paul was charged with forgery, defamation and criminal conspiracy on April 26 after it was found that he was running a "fake online campaign", purporting that Deb's wife Niti has filed for a divorce.
The Facebook user had been on the run since then.
Deb described the rumour as a "deep-rooted conspiracy" to tarnish his image.
In a new Facebook post on Tuesday, Paul wrote, "My ancestral house at Jatanbari (Amarpur subdivision, Gomati district) was burnt for protesting against vulgar practices of BJP, I got the news today, my mother and younger brother were kidnapped by BJP hooligans on (April) 29 night. There is no news of my family till now."
Uttam Banik, the sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) of Amarpur, said, "A general diary entry has been made at Natunbazar police station. A portion of the house at Jatanbari was gutted after the kitchen caught fire. No FIR has been filed so far."
Meanwhile, the Congress Wednesday condemned the incident, asserting that no one "has the right to take law in his own hands".
"We condemn what happened at Jatanbari. If Anupam Paul has committed any crime, law will take its own course. Setting fire to someone's house means taking laws in hands," party vice-president Tapas Dey said.
Denying allegations of the BJP's involvement, spokesperson Ashok Sinha said Paul was "paid to malign the saffron party".
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2 drown, 4 missing after boat capsizes in Yamuna in UP's Hamirpur
Hamirpur (UP) (PTI): Two persons, including a child, drowned and four went missing went missing after a boat capsized in the Yamuna river here, police said on Thursday.
They said the incident took place on Wednesday evening in Kutubpur Patiya hamlet under Bhauli gram panchayat in the Kurara police station area when nine people, not including the boatman, were returning from a river island.
According to police, the boat lost balance in the middle of the river and capsized around 7 pm.
The boatman, Dheeru, managed to rescue three people -- Vishnu, Rinku and Parul.
The remaining six --five children and a woman-- Akanksha (9), Rani (9), Brijrani (25), Labhyansh (5), Mahesh (6), and Aditya (11) -- went missing, police said.
Later on Thursday, rescue teams recovered the bodies of Akanksha and Brijrani (25.
SHO, Brijesh Kumar said that due to heavy rain since the morning, teams are facing difficulties in rescue operation.
District Magistrate Abhishek Goyal said a search for the missing is being conducted by teams of the National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Force.
Taking cognisance of the incident, Chief Minister Adityanath has directed the district administration to investigate the cause of the accident and put in place effective measures to prevent such incidents in future.
He has directed senior police and administrative officials to immediately reach the spot and ensure relief and rescue operations on a war footing, an official statement said.
Adityanath has called for rescue efforts to be intensified to trace the missing persons at the earliest and warned that any negligence in the matter would not be tolerated, it added.
The chief minister also instructed senior district officials to personally monitor the rescue operations and ensure all possible assistance to the affected families.
BJP MLA from Hamirpur Manoj Prajapati said attempts are on to trace the missing. "We will ensure compensation to the affected families in accordance with the rules and submit a report to the chief minister on the incident," he said.
