Tripura Marriage Raids By District Magistrate: Tripura High Court Orders Further Inquiry To Find Out Under Whose Order DM Detained Attendees

Hearing a PIL in relation to a viral video of an incident that took place in Agartala wherein a marriage function was stopped midway by the DM and his team, the Tripura High Court on Wednesday (June 2) observed that taking men, women, and children to the Police Stations and detaining them for about 2 hours is a very serious matter.

A division bench comprising of Chief Justice Akil Kureshi and Justice SG Chattopadhyay perused a report filed by the Secretary of the Inquiry Committee.

It may be noted that a two-member inquiry committee was constituted by the State Government under an order dated 28th April 2021 passed by the Secretary, Government of Tripura and it includes a former District Judge.

However, the Court decided not to make the report public and further asked the Inquiry Committee to carry out further inquiries in relation to certain aspects which have emerged from the report.

The Report

The Committee in the report has come to the conclusion that on the night of the incident i.e. 26th April 2021, 13 women and 6 children of the marriage party were taken to Women Police Station and they were released in the wee hours of the next morning.

It has also been found that they had to arrange their own transportation to return to their homes and it also suggests that taking men, women, and children to the Police Stations and detaining them for about 2 hours was totally unnecessary, unjust and unreasonable.

Noting thus, the Court said:

"This is undoubtedly a very serious matter. However, this report does not indicate as to under whose orders the members of the marriage party including women and children were detained."

Thus, the Court asked the Inquiry Committee to carry out a further inquiry into this aspect of the matter and submit its additional report in sealed covers before the Court on the next date of hearing.

during the course of the earlier hearing in the matter, noting that the State administration has agreed to transfer the District Magistrate out of Agartala, a division bench comprising of Chief Justice Akil Kureshi and Justice SG Chattopadhyay, lifted the rigors against the conduct of further inquiry instituted by the State Government.

The Bench has already issued a bunch of interim directions as it had observed that it would be necessary to transfer the DM out of Agartala "in order to conduct an impartial fact-finding inquiry regarding the incident and the role played by the D.M."

Further, noting that State administration has agreed to transfer the District Magistrate out of Agartala, the division bench had last month, lifted the rigors against the conduct of further inquiry instituted by the State Government.

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