Assam: 3 held for assault on MLA Rumi Nath

In what has turned out to be an embarrassment for the ruling Congress party in Assam,  three absconding persons accused in June 30 mob attack on Congress Member of Legislative Assembly Rumi Nath, 33, and her second husband Zakir in a Karimganj hotel in South Assam, were arrested from the official residence of another Congress MLA in the state assembly complex in Guwahati on Thursday night. 

On getting information that three of her tormentors -- Rana Banik, Rupam Deb and Pranab Bhowmick --  had taken shelter in the official residence of Congress MLA from North Karimganj LAC, Kamalakhya Dey Purkayasthya, Rumi Nath alerted the police and facilitated the arrest of the three accused while they were having dinner.

It was learnt that the three accused were there to secure anticipatory bail petition from the court. The Karimganj police had earlier arrested five others in connection with the case.

Earlier, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had said, "I have asked for a thorough enquiry into the matter. The law will take its own course." He also instructed to the state director general and Karimganj district superintendent of police to deal with the matter firmly.

Nath, a Congress MLA from Borkhola in southern Assam had recently married her Facebook pal Zakir, a government employee, without divorcing her first husband, which has dragged her into a controversy.

There have been protests and counter-protests in South Assam districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi in connection with the unprecedented mob attack on Rumi. Constituents of the Sangha Parivar have added fuel to the raging controversy by resorting to protest against Rumi's marriage to Zakir, without getting a divorce from her first husband.

Rumi was elected for the second time as MLA from the Barkhola LAC in Cachar district in south Assam in May last year. She was first elected in 2006 on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket from the same constituency, but she shifted loyalty to the Congress after she defied the party whip and voted for the Congress in a Rajya Sabha election in 2010.