Thaindian News

By Syed Zarir Hussain
Guwahati, Feb 20 (IANS) The National Investigating Agency (NIA) has revealed a politician-militant-bureaucrat-contractor nexus in Assam relating to a multi-million rupees scam involving government funds but has not named any minister in its final chargesheet.

There is a political storm in Assam with the opposition baying for the resignation of the Congress-led government after The Week magazine published a story quoting the NIA that Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi refused permission to the investigating agency to interrogate seven ministers allegedly involved in the scam.

According to The Week, Rs.1,000 crore of government funds had been swindled.The money was meant for the development of North Cachar Hills district.

But contrary to The Week report, the NIA, in its final chargesheet submitted in the court of the special judge in Guwahati Nov 17, 2009, a copy of which is available with IANS, has not named any minister. However, it has directly indicted some politicians belonging to the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC), a regional party.

The NIA was entrusted by the central government in June 2009 to investigate a criminal case after Assam police arrested two Dima Halim Daogah (DHD-J) rebels in April with Rs.10 million cash and weapons.

The two arrested rebels, Phojendra Hojai and Babul Kemprai, told police the cash was handed over to them by Mohit Hojai, chief executive member of the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC).

The NIA, in its final chargesheet, said elected members of the NCHAC helped the outlawed Jewel Garlosa faction of the DHD-J to siphon government funds.

“Elections to the NCHAC were held in 2007 and the ASDC party was elected to power in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The ASDC had the tacit support of the DHD-J,” the NIA chargesheet said.

“The main activity of the DHD-J after 2006 was to siphon off government funds through extortion with the help of elected members of the council, contractors, and government servants, in order to finance their subversive activities,” the chargesheet added.

The North Cachar Hills district is in southern Assam where the writ of the DHD-J runs supreme. The DHD-J in September 2009 surrendered en masse before Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.

“Mohit Hojai and other accused public servants, along with accused contractors, committed criminal misconduct and defalcated huge sums of money from the funds available with NCHAC, which was channelized through Hawala (illegal channels) operators in Guwahati and Kolkata to reach arms smugglers, who in turn supplied weapons to the DHD-J,” the NIA chargesheet said.

The NIA accused 14 people in the chargesheet of whom 10 are now in jail. The two arrested DHD-J militants and a bureaucrat are out on bail. Another DHD-J leader Niranjan Hojai, named as an accused in the chargesheet, has not yet been arrested as he led the surrender ceremony in September and is presently at a government-run camp.

The state Social Welfare Department Deputy Director R.H. Khan, also an accused, is on bail now - charged with conniving with militants in swindling development funds in the same case.

“Investigations revealed that a portion of funds allotted to two Public Health Engineering (PHE) departments and Social Welfare Department were utilized by the DHD-J. Rs.130.5 million was directly siphoned away from the Social Welfare Department and about Rs.30 million from the PHE department in 2009,” the chargesheet said.

There was also large-scale corruption by the NCHAC under its chief Mohit Hojai with business contracts being given to fictitious firms and payments made without the job actually completed or in some case not even started.

The NIA chargesheet also sought permission to produce DHD-J leader Niranjan Hojai in court to face trial as he was the person who received funds from the NCHAC.

NIA, the new federal agency to combat terror, has now referred the matter to the central government for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe as there were government officials involved in criminal misconduct.