GUWAHATI, March 22 - The Central agencies played the key role in the arrest of Subodh Biswas, whose provocative speech at Silapathar led to violence followed by widespread protests all over Assam.
Though a �look out notice� was issued against Biswas, he managed to escape from the State and as his provocative statements created apprehension of disturbance in the State, the Central agencies got into the act.
Highly placed sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) told The Assam Tribune that this though the Assam Police got in touch with the police forces of other states of the country, it was decided that the Central agencies should also go into the act to ensure nabbing of Biswas.
After starting to investigate into the matter, the Central agencies came to know that Biswas was using three mobile phones, all taken in Nagpur, where he was based. However, he used only one of the numbers during his stay in Assam. The Central agencies started using both technical and human intelligence and tracked him in West Bengal.
Sources said that Biswas used to move around in Bongaon area of West Bengal near the international border with Bangladesh in the North 24 Parganas district under Bagdah police station. He was staying in the houses of his supporters, who are also fighting for the cause of the Hindu Bangladeshi nationals. The agencies kept on tracking him and finally located him yesterday in one such house and immediately requested the Director General of West Bengal Police to nab him.
The West Bengal police nabbed Subodh Biswas in the wee hours today and handed him over to the team of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Assam Police, which went to bring him to Assam to face trial for his offence. Though initially a technical problem arose on the issue of handing Biswas to Assam Police team, which was not carrying all the relevant documents, the matter was sorted out because of the intervention of the Centre.
MHA sources admitted that normally the Central agencies get involved when a threat to the security of the country is involved, but on this particular incident, it was decided that such agencies should get involved as the provocative speech of Biswas could lead to conflicts between different linguistic groups of Assam.
It may be mentioned here that the parents of Biswas came from Bangladesh and though he was born in West Bengal, he has been staying in Nagpur for some years. He and his colleagues are also fighting for the cause of the Hindu Bangladeshi migrants and met senior political leaders including in Central and state level on different occasions.
