Ambulance stopped for CM Himanta’s convoy: 4 Assam cops suspended

SILCHAR: Four cops managing traffic in south Assam’s Silchar were suspended Thursday for briefly stopping an ambulance ferrying a critically ill patient the previous day to let CM Himanta Biswa Sarma’s convoy pass.The action, coinciding with the 47-year-old cirrhosis patient’s death at Silchar Medical College and Hospital, came a day after Himanta ordered an inquiry and publicly apologised to the family for what he termed an “unacceptable” violation of his standing order not to inconvenience ordinary citizens in the name of VIP movement.The ambulance taking deceased Rasaraj Chakraborty to hospital had to stop for about four minutes near Ramnagar ISBT as police cleared the route for Sarma’s convoy. The CM came to know about it after a video purportedly showing the ambulance waiting for his convoy to pass did the rounds of social media platforms.“Emergency medical care must take precedence over VIP movement,” Sarma said.