MANGALDAI, July 4 - The Commissioner and Secretary of the Excise Department, R Prasad vide notification no. EX.77/2016/20 dated June 30 has finally placed the absconding Excise Superintendent of Udalguri, Jagannath Bora under suspension with immediate effect. The Excise Department of the State Government took a period of three months only to issue the suspension order against the allegedly corrupt Superintendent of Excise who has been absconding since March 29 last following the registration of a criminal case under the sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The decision of the Excise department to place the Superintendent of Excise under suspension was however taken up only after publication of a news item in this newspaper on June 16 last. The absconding official Jagannath Bora was functioning as the Excise Superintendent of Udalguri with the additional charge of Darrang district.
On�March 20�last, the accused Excise Superintendent Jagannath Bora accompanied by one Executive Magistrate and one Excise Inspector and a team taking the plea of carrying out raids as per the instructions of the Election Commission of India entered a IMFL shop at Tangla town in Udalguri district and demanded a huge amount from the licensee Sanjoy Sen threatening taking of strict action on the wine shop. Finding no alternative, the owner of the wine shop paid the amount to the Superintendent of Excise. But lady luck was not in favour of the Excise Superintendent. His presence in the wine shop and the moment of demanding and taking the money from the licensee of the wine shop was recorded in the CCTV.
The licensee filed an FIR at Tangla Police station along with the footage of the CCTV and accordingly the Tangla Police registered a case vide number 38/16 under section 384 of IPC read with section 7/13 (i)/(B) of Prevention of Corruption Act. Since the filing of the FIR, the accused Superintendent of Excise had gone missing without availing any official leave. The police conducted raids at his residence at Tinsukia several times but had to return empty handed as his house was found under lock and key.
The district administration and the police meanwhile officially communicated with the Excise department of BTC, Excise Commissioner and the State Government. Significantly, the Commissioner of the Excise department vide letter issued on�April 20�last on the basis of the report submitted by the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Udalguri had requested the Government to take action against the absconding corrupt Excise Superintendent Jagannath Bora but the Commissioner and Secretary of the Excise department in the State Secretariat R Prasad surprisingly took 70 days to initiate disciplinary action. Conscious circles in Udalguri and Darrang districts have appealed to the State Government and the police to carry out search operation at the residences of the absconding Superintendent of Excise to find out the sleaze money that he allegedly used to earn by corrupt means.
