GUWAHATI, July 10 � Voluntary organisation Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) today announced that it would move the Supreme Court of India seeking its intervention in re-opening the TADA cases against Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Addressing a crowded press conference here, KMSS secretary Akhil Gogoi today said that his organisation was now in possession of the original case diaries of the above cases, which went missing from the Panbazar (Case No. 15/1991) and Chandmari (Case No. 77/1991) police stations. The Gauhati High Court had acquitted Sarma as the reconstructed case diaries failed to substantiate the charges against him.
The KMSS was also in possession of all the documents related to the murder of noted Congress leader Manabendra Sarma, the seizure lists, the confessions made by each and every person who were Himanta Biswa Sarma�s accomplices in the above cases, Sarma�s own interrogation/confessional statements, investigating officers� reports and some letters with explosive information, among others, Gogoi said.
The disappearance of all these documents led to the acquittal of Himanta Biswa Sarma in all the above cases. Since the documents in their original forms were now available it was expected that the cases could be re-opened, he said.
He also supplied the newspersons some excerpts and parts of the photo copies of the above documents. In one of the excerpts, Sarma confessed his links with ULFA and having helped the militants of the outfit in their extortion bids.
One of the accomplices of Sarma also made a confessional statement that he was hiding in Room No. 2 of the RKB Hostel of Cotton College to avoid arrest and was operating from there. He confessed keeping some ULFA documents, ULFA receipts, one pistol and 25 rounds of ammunition buried behind the kitchen of the Sitanath Brahmachoudhury Hostel of Cotton College. Accordingly, the investigating police officer seized the above materials in presence of the witnesses, said one of the excerpts.
On the strength of these case diaries and documents, the KMSS is going to file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition in the Supreme Court with the plea that the above cases should be directed to be reopened, Gogoi said.
He explained that in order to resist the fascist tendencies that have been gripping the political life of the State with rapid strides and also to free the State�s politics and society from corruption, the KMSS has undertaken a mission to expose the powerful coterie of politicians, bureaucrats, contractors and criminals.
This coterie has been extending help to the exploiters working under the garb of neo-liberalisation of the country�s economy. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has been using Himanta Biswa Sarma to facilitate such exploitation and Sarma has been working as the kingpin in this political exercise. This coterie is bent on imposing an undeclared emergency in Assam.
As part of the anti-democratic conspiracy of this coterie, Himanta Biswa Sarma is trying to tear down the struggle of the KMSS. To frustrate all such designs and attempts, the KMSS has undertaken the above bid to initiate a proper judicial procedure against Sarma, Gogoi said.
NC Hills scam: Alleging that the Rs 1000-crore NC Hills Autonomous Council scam was much bigger than what it appeared to be, Akhil Gogoi also demanded steps to bring the financial irregularities in Karbi Anglong District Autonomous Council also within the ambit of the CBI probe.
He claimed that the size of the money involved in the NC Hills scam might be five times more than the presently projected one. He demanded that the CBI enquiry should cover the entire episode since 2001.
Asking for a more comprehensive enquiry into the NC Hills scam, the KMSS secretary demanded that former Assam Governor Ajai Singh and Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi should also be questioned by the CBI, along with other politicians and bureaucrats, in this connection.
He further alleged that the office-bearers of his organisation, which had unearthed many cases of corruption and fund anomalies through the RTI, had taken a great risk by raising the issue of NC Hills Autonomous Council scam and going against the minister.
�We all know that we might be killed or imprisoned on fake grounds for speaking the truth. Through various sources we have come to know that traps are being laid for the KMSS leaders,� alleged Gogoi.
