Congress on Saturday expelled Assam Youth wing Congress president Angkita Dutta for her alleged anti-party activities after she recently accused Indian Youth Congress (IYC) chief BV Srinivas of harassment and even lodged a complaint in this regard.
Tariq Anwar, member-secretary of the Disciplinary Action Committee (DAC) on Saturday issued a letter in which he wrote, “Hon’ble Congress president has expelled Dr Angkita Dutta, president Assam Pradesh Youth Congress from the primary membership of the party for six years for her anti-party activities with immediate effect.”
Dutta had on April 18 spoke about the alleged harassment and the next day, she lodged a complaint at Dispur police station against Srinivas. According to her, Srinivas has been mentally harassing her for the past six months. She claimed that Srinivas used derogatory language and threatened her with dire consequences if she were to raise a complaint to higher party officials.
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Talking to a media person in Guwahati, Angkita had said that on March 25, Srinivas sexually assaulted her in a hotel in Chhattisgarh. She claimed that she informed the party’s high officials about the incident, however, they ignored her.
“I didn’t file a complaint against the party but against a particular person, BV Srinivas. I am a Congress party worker, I have worked for the party and will continue doing so. All I wanted is to stand against what was wrong and I hope the accused will be punished under the law,” she told the media on April 21.
Meanwhile, in response to Dutta’s complaint and harassment allegations, Srinivas filed a defamation case and sent her a legal notice.
Dutta appeared at the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court on April 21 and her statement was recorded under section 164 CrPC, which grants the magistrate the authority to record statements or confessions regardless of jurisdiction.
The Congress party on the same day issued a show cause notice to Dutta alleging her of making “disgraceful allegations and tarnishing the image of the Congress party”. A day later, a letter of her suspension was issued.
Senior Congress leader Debabrata Saikia after the suspension said that Dutta recently went out of the party line and did some anti-party activities. “She crossed all the limits. She didn’t follow the party’s discipline and lodged a complaint. She even appeared before a judicial magistrate without consulting us,” he said.
Saikia said that Dutta was given a show cause notice but her reply was not satisfactory. “AICC [All India Congress Committee] was not satisfied with the reply to the notice and as a result, she was expelled,” he added.
President of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee Bhupen Kumar Borah called blamed Dutta for tarnishing the party’s image and called her allegations disgraceful. “The allegations she raised against Srinivas BV are disgraceful and she is tarnishing the image of the Congress party by exaggerating it,” Borah said.
