Assam MLA held for remarks calling COVID 19 hospitals worse than detention centres

An opposition MLA in Assam was arrested on Tuesday for making "objectionable" remarks about the condition of quarantine facilities and hospitals treating COVID 19 patients, calling them worse than detention centres, police said. Aminul Islam, the All India United Democratic Front (AIDUF) legislator from Dhing constituency was apprehended early in the morning after preliminary interrogation, state police chief Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta told PTI.

An audio clip containing a telephonic conversation purportedy between Islam and another person was doing the rounds on social media where the lawmaker was heard talking "disparagingly" about the quarantine facilities and hospitals. He also purportedly said the living conditions there were worse than those at the detention centres.

Hundreds of suspected illegal migrants, many of them Muslims, are lodged in the detention centres in Assam after they did not figure in the controversial updated National Register of Citizens.

"We have registered a case against him under various sections of the IPC for criminal conspiracy, spreading disaffection between communities, among others," Mahanta said.

He said the Assam Assembly Speaker has been informed about the development.