Dispur calls in CBI

Guwahati, June 10: While an Assam minister was arrested last week trying to bribe a CBI officer, another seemed happy with Dispur’s decision to involve the central agency into an inquiry to prove his innocence.
Prodded by power minister Pradyut Bordoloi, Dispur has decided to hand over the case of a missing couple from Margherita — Prasanna Turung and Kamai Turung — to the CBI.

The Turung couple — both active NCP activists — have been missing since April 2007. While Prasanna was the NCP candidate from Margherita in the 2006 Assembly elections, his wife was the secretary of the state youth wing of the party.

The Nationalist Congress Party had recently alleged Bordoloi’s involvement in the incident.
Dismissing the charges levelled against him, Bordoloi today said, “I have no involvement in this case.”
“There will always be rivals in politics, but I will not stoop so low,” he said adding his activities have always been transparent.

The incident comes just a week after former education minister Ripun Bora was caught red-handed for offering a bribe of Rs 10 lakh to a CBI officer to hush up the Daniel Topno murder case.
The minister said chief minister Tarun Gogoi had informed him of the decision after he wrote to him on June 5 seeking a CBI or CID probe to clear the air about his alleged involvement in the missing case of the couple.
“I am also equally concerned about the couple,” he said.

Bordoloi said he had received a memorandum from the Tirap Autonomous District Council Demand Committee, Longtong, alleging that the duo were kidnapped from their house in the evening of April 8 last year.

A special police squad has been constituted to track them down but to no avail. Bordoloi said the squad had even gone to Changlang in Arunachal Pradesh and to Siliguri in West Bengal to search for the couple.
Two persons were also arrested in this connection.
“I also wrote a letter to both the director-general of police and superintendent of police on May 14, 2007, requesting investigation,” he added.