Leader of the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) and chairman of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) Binoy Tamang has welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court to dismiss GJMM leader Bimal Gurung’s plea.

According to him, Friday’s verdict of the apex court proved that Mr Gurung was the one who wanted to disturb peace in the Hills, and that it was his camp that restored peace after the recent 104-day shutdown.

It may be mentioned here that Mr Gurung had filed a plea in the Supreme Court in Delhi, seeking protection from arrest in several cases slapped on him during the recent Gorkhaland agitation in the Hills.

“We welcome the SC verdict given on Friday morning, which shows that the law is the same for everyone and no one should go against India and its law. He has to get proper punishment for it and we respect the SC verdict. Gurung, who ran away from here, has many criminal cases against him related to bomb explosions, arms and ammunition and anti-terrorist acts. He had continuously alleged that these were conspiracies of the state government, for which he had filed the case in the Supreme Court (on 14 November last year),” Mr Tamang said.

The apex court had on 20 November stayed Mr Gurung’s arrest. “His case has now been dismissed and now the SC has given the state government the right to arrest him. The hill situation had gone from bad to worse during the agitation, with many brothers and sisters also dying. There were many problems here and there were chances of more people dying. I tried to save the Hills and its people but got branded by his camp and supporters as being anticommunity and anti- Gorkhaland, which I am not. But the verdict on Friday proves that Gurung was the one who was trying to disturb peace here,” said Mr Tamang.

Maintaining that the SC verdict has “ended the existence” of Gurung and another Morcha leader Roshan Giri, he said, “I also request those who are with him and support him to return and work with us to make Darjeeling a better place. We want their support also.”

Mr Tamang also criticized Darjeeling MP SS Ahluwalia, claiming that he was working for only one person when he should have been working for his entire constituency. “I will also write to the central government and the BJP leadership a complaint against Ahluwalia, as he is only trying to break the peace here. He was the brain behind Gurung’s supreme Court case,” he said.

He also said that he will be writing to the home minister, Bengal governor and chief minister, along with the department concerned, regarding the audio clip that is purportedly a telephonic conversation between a local man and Darjeeling police station Inspector-in-charge, and where the police officer, Soumyajit Roy allegedly threatens the man.

“An inquiry is already underway in the CBI level and the SP level, and if the officer is guilty, he should be punished, but if the audio clip is fake, the one who spread it should also be punished as this could have been done to create turmoil here,” he said, adding that they want the voice test done in Hyderbad and Bangalore to ascertain the authenticity of the recording.