Assam scam will be raised in parliament: BJP

GUWAHATI - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday said the multi-million financial scam involving swindling of government funds by a clique of politicians-bureaucrats-militants-contractors in Assam will be raised in parliament.

“We would like this very serious matter relating to corruption to be heard in parliament. Our MPs would like to debate the issue during the upcoming monsoon session,” BJP leader and former Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda told reporters here.

The politician-militant-bureaucrat-contractor nexus involving government funds siphoned off in the North Cachar Hills district was unravelled by the National Investigating Agency (NIA) last year.

The case was later handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is now probing the scam.

“The matter is indeed very grave as it involves militants in nexus with politicians siphoning off government funds. So, we decided that the issue be raised in parliament for everybody to know what is happening in Assam,” said Munda, who was in Guwahati for party-related meetings.

Last month, CBI seized Rs.13.05 crore cash stacked in sacks and boxes from the house of a relative of a scam-accused official in Guwahati.

The house is owned by Amjad Hussain, brother-in-law of R.H. Khan, one of the main accused in the multi-million rupee financial scam in Assam’s North Cachar Hills district.

Khan, a deputy director in the state social welfare department and one of the 14 people accused by the CBI of conniving with militants in swindling development funds, is in jail.

The NIA was entrusted by the central government in June 2009 to investigate a criminal case after the Assam Police arrested two Dima Halim Daogah (DHD-J) rebels in April with Rs.1 crore cash and weapons.

The rebels, Phojendra Hojai and Babul Kemprai, told police the cash was handed over to them by Mohit Hojai, chief executive member of the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC).

The NIA, in its final chargesheet, said elected members of the NCHAC helped the outlawed Jewel Garlosa faction of the DHD-J to siphon government funds.

NIA, the new federal agency to combat terror, later handed over the case to the central government for a CBI probe as government officials were involved in criminal misconduct.

“We need a thorough and fair probe into the whole incident,” Munda said.