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Apang arrested, in police custody

By Correspondent

ITANAGAR, Aug 24 � Veteran Congress leader and former Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Gegong Apang was today arrested by the sleuths of Special Investigation Cell (SIC) on charges of his involvement in the Rs 1000 crore PDS scam in the State.

The SIC sleuths arrested Apang from Itanagar after being summoned to appear before the investigating agency for interrogation in connection with the multi-crore public distribution system (PDS) scam.

Later in the day, he was produced before the Special Sessions Court in Lakhimpur in Assam. He was sent to a seven-day police remand, informed the Superintendent of Police (Vigilance) M S Chauhan, who also head the SIC.

Apang, who was summoned to appear before the SIC in Itanagar for interrogation, was arrested under non-bailable sections. He was booked under section 120b (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery), 409 (criminal breach of trust) of IPC read with B-2 Prevention of Corruption Act.

�We have arrested Apang basing on material evidence and statement given by other accused,� said the investigating officer Chauhan.

�We have provided him a set of questionnaires� Apang was summoned on three earlier occasions, he appeared before the SIC only today. He denied knowledge of facts or persons involved in the PDS scam,� Chauhan said.

The SIC was constituted by the state government on the directive of Gauhati High Court following a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the Arunachal Citizens� Rights (ACR) chairperson Bamang Tago and Domin Loya on June 13, 2004 alleging over Rs 1000 crore PDS scam in the state.

Apang was at the helm of affairs when the scam took place. During that period, false and fraudulent hill transport subsidy (HTS) bills were cleared without financial concurrence, forcing the state exchequer to suffer a loss of Rs 500 crore.

Born on July 8 1949 at Karko village in Upper Siang district, Gegong Apang served as the Chief Minister of the hilly state from January 18 1980 to January 19 1999 and again from August 2003 to April 9 2007 before his bete-noir Dorjee Khandu dethroned him from the state�s top chair.

Apang resigned as Chief Minister after a stint of 19 years in 1999. His most cherished dream of surpassing West Bengal patriarch Jyoti Basu�s record (24 years) as the longest surviving Chief Minister was shattered when he had to resign after failing to defeat a �no confidence motion� in the Assembly. He was elected leader of the newly formed United Democratic Front, a coalition of his own political party, Arunachal Congress and several others, in 2003. Only a few months later, Apang and his supporting MLAs merged with the Saffron Brigade, making Arunachal the first BJP-ruled state in the Northeast.

In the 2009 assembly election, he lost to NCP�s Alo Libang by the margin of 1370 votes.

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