Scribe Rajib Sarma granted bail extension till July 22

A CORRESPONDENT

DHUBRI: Scribe Rajib Sarma was granted extension of bail on Saturday till July 22 in the case filed by Dhubri Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) alleging extortion and outraging the modesty of his wife.

Extension of bail was granted in the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Gipsi Deb and Sarma will appear before the court for seeking further extension or permanent bail, a court source said. Sarma was booked under non-bailable sections but due to sudden demise of his father he was granted an interim bail of three days to perform the last rites of his father on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Dhubri Journalists' Association (DJA) thanked the government for taking quick action in the matter of the scribe and transferring Dhubri Superintendent of Police, Yuvraj Kumar and DFO Biswajit Roy.

Further, Additional DGP (Law and Order) GP Singh on Friday had said that SIT would be formed to review and investigate the activities of police during the last two years and RajibSarma's case filed by the DFO would be handed over to CID for investigation.

Earlier, the scribe's case was transferred to Bongaigaon district for investigation by DSP. However, now the entire case would be investigated by CID, a police source said.

In an another development, family members of the scribe lodged an FIR against the SP and DFO in Gauripur Police Station on Friday wherein they held both of them responsible for premature demise of the scribe's father, SudhinSarma.

On the night of Wednesday, a police team led by Naba Jyoti Nath went to the residence of the scribe and forcefully brought him to Dhubri police station at around 2.30 AM and arrested him without any warrant, family members alleged in the FIR.

President of Dhubri Journalists'Association( Dhubri Press Club), Bijoy Kumar Sharma said that they had full faith in the judiciary and they would fight the battle in the court for the truth to come out. "We also thank the government for their quick action in the matter and for setting up SIT and handing over the case of RajibSarma to CID. We now expect a free and fair investigation by these two competent authorities and this will reveal how deep the alleged corruption running in the police and forest department is," Sharma added.

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