Bogged down by the charges of doing politics with alleged “secret killing” of Ulfa sympathisers and family members, the Assam government on Tuesday took a U-turn on chief minister Tarun Gogoi’s remark of “no evidence” and announced that the police may grill former chief minister and AGP president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta for his involvement into the secret killing during the AGP regime (1996-2001).
Pointing out that the Justice Saikia Commission has made reference to the then home minister and surrendered Ulfa rebels, the government spokesperson and health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters that even now Mr Mahanta may be taken to task for masterminding the secret killing of Ulfa family members and sympathisers. He claimed that some Ulfa leaders had also admitted their involvement into the secret killing at the behest of then AGP government.
Clarifying that chief minister’s remarks, expressing his helplessness on issue of secret killing was misrepresented and not construed in prospective, Mr Sharma said that his government has not given clean cheat to any police officer named by the commission.
Claiming that his government wanted to fight this issue politically, Mr Sharma said that they have succeeded in identifying and exposing the mastermind of the secret killing.
When pointed out that former DGP G.M. Srivastava, who was indicted by the judicial commission, was appointed security adviser to the chief minister Mr Gogoi soon after his retirement from the service, Mr Sharma said that it was not a clean cheat to Mr Srivastava.