Cases against GLP for wearing Army fatigues

Gorkhaland Personnel, the vigilante wing and sometime moral police of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, is facing police action for donning the fatigues meant exclusively for the armed forces.

According to Kunal Agarwal, the Darjeeling Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP), cases have already been lodged at Darjeeling, Kurseong, Mirik and Runglee Rungliot police stations on Wednesday. "We will be executing the warrant order of the court tonight," he said, when asked about the police action.

Formed in 2008, GLP as Gorkhaland Personnel is popularly known has faced severe criticism time and again for its policing activities, which, people felt, are ways of implementing GJM's strongarm tactics.

On January 1, local residents clashed with GLP at Gorubathan in Kalimpong after alleged excesses by the latter. One GLP cadre was seriously injured.

Local resentment against GJM reached a peak when the force was deployed as moral police on Chowrasta, the popular promenade in Darjeeling. GLP would round up those caught smoking or in a drunken state. They were also deployed along NH-31A to check vehicles carrying alcohol from Sikkim.

Though the state government has maintained a policy of no confrontation as far as GJM activities are concerned, there was a crackdown on GLP last year, when they were forced to vacate government and DGHC guest houses it had been occupying for months. The latest crackdown is being seen as additional pressure on a beleaguered GJM, which has seen a downslide of support in the Hills ever since the public murder of ABGL chief Madan Tamang in May 2010.

Though GLP cadres usually wear tracksuits, those guarding GJM chief Bimal Gurung during public meetings are seen in the camouflage fatigues of the Army. GJM claims that the GLP is a voluntary unit that is given physical training in camps in Phagu tea garden in Gorubathan and in Jamune and Roy Villa in Darjeeling.

Col Ramesh Allay, president of Bharatiya Gorkha Bhootpurva Sainik Morcha and GLP head, said, "We haven't broken any law. We are involved social work. We had passed an order asking GLP to not wear army fatigues. It could be that some of our men have been wearing fatigues without our knowledge. Will check on that."

The ASP said that cases against GLP had been started last year itself and that the latest development was not a sudden measure as the Kurseong court had also issued warrants against them.