Police arrested four people including two women on Saturday from Assam-Meghalaya border for their alleged involvement in the assault of PHE chief engineer Soumya Kumar Baruah and five others. The Kamrup, Superintendent of police, Mihirjit Gayan told that they had launched an operation on Saturday evening following the FIR and one person was caught and three more were arrested on Sunday. Those arrested have been identified as Habarth Marak, 40, Ayla Sangma, 46, Tungme Marak, 20 and Wilson Marak, 50.”We are taking the incident very seriously and will arrest all those involved in the incident,” Gayan said. The arrest followed an FIR lodged by the PHE department at Boko police station, about 50km west of Guwahati. A police team led by officer-in-charge of Boko police station Jogendra Barman on Sunday rescued Sangma who was also badly beaten up by villagers and admitted him to Boko hospital. Baruah and at least five other employees of his department were assaulted by a mob when they had gone to supervise a water supply project at Hahuapara village in lower Assam’s Kamrup district after an inspection at Rajapara number 1 village where chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal is slated to launch some schemes of the PHE department on September 15. The mob claimed that the village where the team of the officials along with representatives of local NGOs had gone belonged to Meghalaya. Around 200 people, including women, came rushing towards Baruah and the officials and attacked them. The team was held hostage by the mob for hours but was freed following an apology and signatures on blank papers. The mob had also assaulted Monendra Sangma, the headman of Malankona, a nearby village and held him, hostage, as he came forward to save the PHE officials. ]]>
