Hill Voice, 15 August 2025, Special Correspondent: Litigious Suhas Chakma, a Bangladeshi living in Delhi, has threatened to file defamation cases against some media workers from his own Chakma tribal community for merely reporting about TIPRA Motha chief Pradyot Manikya Debbarma’s remarks about his citizenship.

The media outlets facing the threat are the Chakma language news channels ‘Changmha Times’, ‘Chakma Chronicle’ and ‘Borgang Times’. Earlier, Suhas Chakma had also threatened to file a case against Niranjan Chakma, linking him to Hill Voice.

On 12 August 2025, Pradyot Manikya Debbarma had in a post in ‘X’ (formerly twitter) demanded a strong police investigation against Suhas Chakma’s illegal citizenship, purchases of land in different locations in Tripura and his connections with foreign spy agencies, particularly ISI. ‘Tripura Times’ carried a story titled “Pradyot demands investigation against Suhas Chakma’s illegal citizenship” which was shared by small news channels namely ‘Changmha Times’ and ‘Chakma Chronicle’.

Pradyot thereafter deleted his post from his social media account.

Some young Chakma journalists have alleged that they have received threats of legal action from Suhas Chakma for sharing the Tripura Times’ story.

Commenting to the post of ‘Changmha Times’, Suhas Chakma wrote: “There is no such post by Maharaja Pradyot. Check his X account. And Editor Mr. Surjyadhan, remain ready to face legal action for defaming me.” ‘Changmha Times’ editor responded saying Suhas instead of “intimidating” them should prove Tripura Times’ news story to be false.

While ‘Changmha Times’ was forced to delete their post, another news channel editor stood his grounds and refused to be intimidated by Suhas Chakma. However, fearing lawsuits, finally ‘Chakma Chronicle’ and ‘Borgang Times’ have also been forced to delete their posts.

In a video message on Facebook, H Allyang Chakma, editor of ‘Chakma Chronicle’ news channel, claimed Suhas Chakma has intimidated him and his friend Surjyo Dhan Chakma (editor of Changmah Times).

“Mr Suhas Chakma, if you have any problem regarding our post, do reach us but do not just threaten us in your Facebook post saying you will take legal action”, Allyang Chakma told Suhas Chakma.

In his defence Suhas Chakma claimed that “Maharaja Prodyut Manikya Deb Barma has not made any comment on me.” But Chakma journalists strongly rebutted this saying Suhas Chakma himself replied to Pradyot Debbarma’s said post on ‘X’ before it was deleted and they have screenshots as proof.

A Chakma leader who did not want to be named said that Suhas Chakma has threatened media outlets like ‘Changmha Times’, ‘Chakma Chronicle’ and ‘Borgang Times’with the aim of silencing the voice of the people against Suhas Chakma’s corruption, illegal movable and immovable properties, harassment by filing cases, etc.

He said that Suhas Chakma claims himself as a human rights activist, but he does not believe in the freedom of speech and expression of others. He considers himself a victim and claims to file defamation cases against critics to defend himself. But he does not respect the inherent rights of others.

The Chakma leader also said that Suhas Chakma does not think that he is taking away the right to freedom of speech of others while defending himself. An old method of the ruling class or reactionaries is to harass and file cases against any kind of opposition voice so that they do not dare to speak out anymore. Suhas Chakma has now transformed himself into a ruling and oppressive class by owning a lot of money. So whenever someone says anything against him, he threatens to sue or files a case against them.

Suhas Chakma has been targeting Chakma community leaders and student leaders in order to silence them using muscle power and money power. As per Hill Voice’s earlier report, he has filed at lease 16 court cases including legal notices in his name against top Chakma community leaders of Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh since 2021 and at least a hundred Chakma leaders have been prosecuted in his court cases. His victims included the Pradhan Samajpati (Chieftain) of the Chakma community of Tripura, NGO leaders, Village headmen, and student leaders.