Rituparna Pegu Murder Case: The Mising Tribe Organizations’ Protests Flight in Guwahati

On Friday afternoon, 12^th of June 2020, five accused namely Dulal Ali, Ibrahim Ali, Manowara Khatun, Hussain Ali, and Arman Ali brutally murdered a man named Rituparna Pegu in broad daylight. This gruesome murder raises the ‘lynching’ concerns across the state and the protesting organizations started protesting in front of the Noonmati Police Station demanding capital punishment for the murderers. One protestor said, “We roam around on these same streets; we go to these same markets, they will kill us the same way.” Protestors marched all the way from the Noonmati Police Station to the house of the accused where they blocked vehicles and broke the glass of an ASTC bus. Police and security personnel immediately rushed to the spot to stop any possible riots or damage to public and private belongings.

Taking a stock of the incident, the Noonmati PS has arrested 5 accused and charged a charged case vide by the Noonmati PS C/no. 294/20 u/s 147/148/149/302 IPC registered and the investigation is going on. The Police Commissioner Munna Gupta said, “The aforementioned IPC along with murder has been charged due to unlawful assembly which is the nature of these cases. As per investigation it’s a spontaneous case over an individual argument and they argued over sitting on a chair and that led to an argument. After which, the other party called his family members to attack Rituparna Pegu with a knife and rod.”

On the other hand, the family members demanded “fast-track court inquiry for justice”. During the preliminary investigation, it was found that the victim and the accused were caught in a verbal fight over a trivial issue which led to physical conflict between Hussain Ali, his family members, and the victim. Among them, Arman Ali is the owner of the shop where Rituparna Pegu was killed and Hussain Ali is an employee of the store.

The disturbing event took place at a store called Armand Home Furnishing in the open daylight and was caught on a CCTV camera in front of the shop and the video of the incident had gone viral on social media. Police officers then carried Pegu on all fours into the ambulance.

The Noonmati police are still investigating the case and Rituparna Pegu’s wife is asking for justice with the child. Meanwhile, the #Justice4RituparnaPegu is trending on twitter. Before this, one day earlier also a person named Sanatan Deka was killed brutally which raised the question of Hindus lynching in North East among the people.