Assam tea workers who hoisted tricolour bare-chested booked for disrespect

The labourers were protesting closure of the garden and denial of benefits

This week, images of school children braving neck-deep water in Assam to hoist the tricolour on Independence Day went viral. Two days later, workers in a tea garden in the state were booked for disrespecting the national flag. Their offence, reportedly, was to unfurl the tricolour while they chanted slogans and their torsos were bare.

The workers, on the rolls of Bargaon tea garden in Biswanath district, have been charged under the Prevention of Insults to National Honour (Amendment) Act, said Biswanath police chief Diganta Kumar Chaudhury.

The police acted on the complaint of the officer in charge of the Borgang police