Award for main molestation accused, 'Bond' raised to Rs1 lakh

The reward for information about the whereabouts of Amar Jyoti Kalita, prime accused in the molestation of a girl in Guwahati, has been increased to Rs1 lakh.

Assam DGP Jayanta Narayan Choudhury confirmed the increase in the reward amount.

Kalita, whose Facebook page gives his moniker as 'Bond' is the red T-shirt clad man in the video of the mob of men molesting and assaulting the school girl in a video posted on You-Tube. The video, which went viral last week, sparked nation-wide outrage whose focus has been Kalita.

Seven persons have been arrested for the molestation till now, even as investigations are on after an activist leveled charges that a television journalist had instigated the crowd to go after the victim.

Meanwhile, the bar owner Rajesh Jalan has been faulted by the police for failure to inform the appropriate police station the night the incident happened. "Jalan had called up Dispur police station (2km to the south adjoining the secretariat) instead of Bhangagarh police station (1.5km to the north) under which the bar falls. Nevertheless, we suspended Dispur police ASI Subhan Barua for not picking up the phone. Jalan's mobile phone record revealed he had called the number four times. He said he had the Dispur PS number saved because his residence is within that police station's jurisdiction," a senior police officer investigating the incident said.

Meanwhile, expressing shock at the manner in which two police stations bickered over jurisdiction even as a teenaged girl was being publicly molested and stripped by a mob, the NCW report on the incident said, it amounted to dereliction of duty.

The NCW report obliquely suggests that the main accused, Kalita, may have political connections and questions why a media cameraman kept shooting the incident for over half-an-hour and made no effort to help the victim.

Meanwhile, a three-member team of NCW was to submit a special probe report on the incident today in the national capital, but the report has been delayed. The team, which met the victim on Saturday, later told the press that the victim who had cigarette burns on her body was still in a state of shock.

Meanwhile, there have been conflicting reports on the arrest of Kalita. Headlines Today said Kalita had been nabbed in Bhubaneswar, but the Odisha Police could not confirm the arrest report, and only said they were not involved in the reported arrest.

The police have made seven arrests so far; while 13 others allegedly involved in the incident remain at large.