Prashant Kishor’s I-PAC team ‘confined’ to Tripura hotel

AGARTALA: At least 23 members of Prashant Kishor’s Indian Political Action Committee ( I-PAC) were on Monday asked to stay inside a hotel in Agartala till their Covid-19 test reports arrive, police said

AGARTALA: At least 23 members of Prashant Kishor’s Indian Political Action Committee ( I-PAC) were on Monday asked to stay inside a hotel in Agartala till their Covid-19 test reports arrive, police said.

HT Image

The team arrived in the state last week to assess potentiality of Trinamool Congress (TMC) to expand its base in Tripura, which will go for assembly polls in 2023. The state is currently ruled by Bharatiya Janata Party- Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (BJP-IPFT) alliance.

Police said some of these persons were found moving at different places amidst Covid-19 curfew. Police added that they visited their hotel on Monday and inquired about their purpose of visit, calling it a ‘routine check-up’.

All of them underwent Covid-19 tests on Monday and were asked to stay inside a private hotel where they have been staying, till they get clearance from the health department, said a police officer from East Agartala police station.

A person from the I-PAC team stranded at the hotel said they were not given any reason for staying in the hotel except that the order came “from the top”. The person added that the RT-PCR tests are suspected to have been so aligned that the visiting team members could board their flights back to Kolkata and do nothing apart from that.

A state health department official said the team members had violated the mandatory RT-PCR negative test report to enter the state for non-residents.

Meanwhile, TMC’s Tripura unit president Asish Lal Singh termed it as an attack on democracy. “The I-PAC team came here for a survey. The state government has put them under virtual house arrest as they are scared of their survey results...,” said Singh.

President of BJP in the state Manik Saha said he is not aware of anything about this.