GUWAHATI: Over 200 illegal petition writers who allegedly seek money to write petitions and add irrelevant sections of laws while drafting them were arrested from across Assam, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Sunday.
Sarma, who had earlier cautioned against such illegal petition writers, said more arrests will be made soon.
"Assam Police have arrested 242 illegal petition writers since Saturday night. We can expect 20-25 more arrests shortly," the chief minister told reporters.
Such petition writers who operate outside several police stations "manipulate" petitioners by mentioning wrong sections of law in the complaints thereby making the cases "unnecessarily complicated", the chief minister said.
A police officer said that though writing a petition on behalf of another person is not illegal, it becomes so when money is charged for it and irrelevant sections are incorporated in a complaint without the petitioner being explained about it.
"These petition writers manipulate innocent people and also charge money for writing the petitions," he said.
The chief minister had in November warned of cracking the whip against illegal petition writers and asked the officer-in-charge of the police stations to act against them.
Sarma had pointed that it is the job of the sub-inspectors to draft the complaints, and people should not pay for the service.
A similar crackdown was undertaken in September last when over 500 alleged illegal land brokers were arrested from several areas of the state after the chief minister had directed the police to act tough against such middlemen.