GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said a “big conspiracy of grabbing land” is behind the crimes against women in the state.
Speaking to the newsmen here on August 25, he said the conspiracy being hatched in way so the people sell off their property and leave for other places.
The CM hinted at ‘political patronage’ behind the crimes, while also claiming that financial power is shifting out of the hands of the Assamese people. “No society is perfect. Crimes against women are a reality. These crimes had come down in the state in the last three years. But the real intention in the recent incidents is much bigger, through crimes such as rape the target is our land, civilisation,” Sarma said told the newsmen.
“In Assam, this design is on for the last 30-35 years. That is why the Assam Agitation happened. We have identified the radicals now, but in 1975 itself, the Assamese society was warned that this would happen,” he said, referring to the six-yearlong movement from 1979 against illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Claiming that a “big conspiracy of grabbing land” is being hatched through such crimes, Sarma said, “The survivor’s family in Dhing told me that they don’t want to stay there anymore… people sell off their property and leave for other places. For a plot of land worth Rs 5 lakh, they are offered Rs 50 lakh.”
A 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped by three persons in Nagaon’s Dhing area on Thursday evening, with the incident sparking widespread protests. One of the accused was arrested by the police the next day, but he died when he jumped into a pond while purportedly trying to escape from custody.
Assam Chief Minister Sarma claimed that there is a “pattern” in which first, one or two persons enter and set up their houses in a village, then they start eating beef in their homes and neighbours, uncomfortable with it, start leaving the area.
