NIA exposes militant-politician-bureaucrat-contractor nexus in Assam

The National Investigating Agency (NIA) has come up with some startling revelations about the politician-militant-bureaucrat-contractor nexus in Assam with government funds to the tune of millions going to the coffers of a separatist group.

The NIA, in its final chargesheet submitted in the court of the Special Judge in Guwahati Nov 17, said elected members of the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC) helped the outlawed Jewel Garlosa faction of the Dima Halim Daogah (DHD-J) to siphon government funds.

"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 NIA charge sheet, a copy of which is available with IANS, said.

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

The two arrested rebels, Phojendra Hojai and Babul Kemprai, spilled the beans during initial interrogation by Assam police, saying the cash was handed over to them by the Chief Executive Member of the NCHAC, Mohit Hojai.

The North Cachar Hills district is in southern Assam where the writ of the DHD-J reigns supreme. The DHD-J in September 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 charge sheet said.

The NIA accused 14 people in the charge sheet of whom 11 are in jail. The two arrested DHD-J militants are out on bail. Another DHD-J leader Niranjan Hojai, named as an accused in the charge sheet, has not yet been arrested as he led the surrender ceremony in September and is presently at a government-run designated camp.

The state Social Welfare department Deputy Director R.H. Khan, also an accused, is in jail now for conniving with the militants in swindling development funds in the same case.

"Elections to the NCHAC were held in 2007 and the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC) party was elected to power in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party. The ASDC had the tacit support of the DHD-J," the NIA charge sheet said.

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

NIA is a new federal agency approved by the Indian government to combat terror and is empowered to deal with terror related crimes without special permission from the states.

The NIA 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.

Last updated on Nov 21^st, 2009 at 13:25 pm IST--IANS