Police in Assam’s Darrang district have arrested two members of a Hindutva outfit for allegedly holding an arms training camp at a private school in Mangaldoi in end-July.

The camp was attended by Rashtriya Bajrang Dal members from across the Northeast, who stayed on the campus. The school, which has about 2,000 students from nursery to Class XII, was on vacation.

The RBD was launched by former VHP leader Pravin Togadia in 2018.

The police arrested two Rashtriya Bajrang Dal (RBD) members on Wednesday and produced them in a local court. Gopal Boro was arrested from his home at Dimagusi in neighbouring Udalguri district, about 60km from Mangaldoi, and Bijay Ghosh was picked up from his Mangaldoi home.

They were remanded in a day’s police custody, following which they were sent to judicial custody. A search is on for the others involved in the camp.

On Tuesday, the police had arrested school principal Hemanta Payeng and senior office employee Ratan Das but they were granted bail around 9pm.

They had told the police that permission had been granted by the school authorities to an RBD member, Abhijit Ghose, to hold a yoga camp, not an arms training camp, sources said.

The police said the arrests were made on a complaint that was filed after a video surfaced on Monday purportedly showing an arms training camp being conducted at the Mangaldoi Maharishi Vidyamandir Vidyalaya.

The case has been registered under IPC Sections153A and 34 dealing withpromoting enmity between different groups and criminal acts by several persons in furtherance of common intention.

The Darrang deputy commissioner has also lodged an FIR against the founding trustee of the school Zoii Nath Sarmah, who is also a former MLA and minister, for allegedly allowing the camp.

The preliminary findings have revealed that the school principal had forwarded the application to Sarmah for approval.

“Section 144 is in force in the entire district. Only the DC can issue permission to hold meetings and permissions when such restrictions are in place. That is why we have lodged an FIR against Zoii Nath Sarmah who seems to have given permission to hold the camp in the school. However, we came to about the arms training only after the video surfaced,” deputy commissioner Munindra Nath Ngatey told The Telegraph.

CrPC Section 144 prohibits the assembly of four or more people in an area.

The school authoritiesresponded by filing an FIRon Tuesday against Ghose,the RBD member who had applied for permission on July 13 to hold a yoga training session.

In his application to the school, the Mangaldoi-based Ghose had said that discussions on employability and a drug-free society wouldalso be conducted during the four-day camp.

“Our school encourages yoga and meditation, but why would we grant permission for arms training? That is why we have lodged the FIR against Ghose.

“We immediately informed the police about the arms training after we saw the video,” Sarma, the former minister, said.

The arms training case prompted the Opposition to seek answers from the BJP-led state government with Assam Congress chief Bhupen Kumar Borah in a tweet asking chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to “come clean”, citing purported comments by one of his ministers, Jayanta Malla Baruah, that such “training was required to give protection to temples”.

“Does this mean that the services of the Assam police are inadequate? Does this mean the Assam police is useless? What does the minister imply by his statement?” Borah tweeted on Tuesday.