Agartala, Sept 24: A total of 42 cases were registered and 18 persons were arrested in Tripura in connection with the recent political clashes.

The statement came from Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, who also holds the portfolio of Home, during the Session of Tripura Legislative Assembly on Friday.

The Chief Minister told the House tha the Law and Order situation had improved significantly and the total number of crimes had come down across the state. However, there were reports of some political clashes recently and the government had ordered fair probe in every case.

According to Deb, total 42 cases of political clashes were registered in different police stations of the state-- among them, 25 cases were lodged by CPI-M, seven were filed by BJP, police took suo-moto cases in eight incidents and the remaining two cases were lodged by media houses.

“Police took prompt action in all cases—total 18 persons have so far been arrested and 95 notices have been served under section 41(A) of Cr.PC in connection with such political clashes. At present, 41 cases are under investigation and one case has been sent to the Crime Branch. Action will be taken as per the law in every case once the investigation process is over,” Deb informed the House.

Deb said, any act of violence with the intention to disrupt the state’s growth is unexpected and any such attempt would be dealt with strong hands.

He al stated that no political murder was reported in the state during the past three and half years.

“Not a single political murder has been reported in the state since formation of BJP-IPFT government. The people are now free from the habit of political hatred that was created in the state earlier. Everybody knows who had started the politics of division in every field for around 35-40 years,” Deb mentioned.

Meanwhile, sharing a report released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the Chief Minister also said before the House that there was a sharp decline in the number of overall crimes in three years since 2018.

Deb stated before the House that Tripura had recorded 16,719 crimes in three years-- 6078 crimes in 2018, 5988 in 2019 and 4653 crimes in 2020. He also said that the number of Crimes Against Women (CAW) had also come down in Tripura from 1,070 in 2019 to 874 in 2020 while the state also saw a decline in the number of murders—from 144 in 2019 to 114 in 2020.

Meanwhile, the Opposition MLAs agitated in the well of the Assembly over Law and Order issues and then walked out.

They walked out of the House after newly-elected Speaker rejected an adjournment motion moved by party CPM MLA Sudhan Das on the law and order situation.

Later, speaking to the media Opposition Leader Manik Sarkar said that the opposition MLAs would boycott the remaining session, scheduled to end on Monday, in protest against the Speaker's "adamant" behaviour.

"There is no point in sitting in the House if we are not allowed to discuss important issues", Sarkar told the media.