M A I N   N E W S

Bribery Case
Ex-Assam minister in CBI custody
Ravi Bhatia
Tribune News Service

Former Assam education minister Ripun Bora at the Patiala House court in New Delhi on Wednesday. A Tribune photograph

New Delhi, June 4
A Delhi Court today remanded former Assam education minister Ripun Bora and a co-accused to three-day CBI custody for allegedly offering a bribe of Rs 17 lakh to a CBI officer in a bid to influence a murder probe against him.

“The CBI plea seeking custodial interrogation of accused Ripun Bora and Ramesh k Maheshwari is justified. Since the facts and missing links of the circumstantial evidence are to be collected from Guwahati as well, I am of considered opinion that they be remanded to police custody till June 7”, Additional Sessions Judge R.K. Yadav said.

The accusations, justifying their arrest, are well founded. Conspiracy is hatched in darkness and that is to be probed during the thorough interrogation. Any missing link may impede the investigation, the court observed.

Allowing the plea of the investigating agency, the court said the circumstances suggested that there was a conspiracy between Bora, Maheshwari and Mukul Pathak, a journalist, arrested at Guwahati airport to bribe a CBI official, who was probing a murder case in which Bora was a suspect.

The CBI alleged that the minister, in his bid to wriggle out of the ongoing probe against him, tried to bribe DSP A.B. Gupta, who was investigating the case.

According to the CBI, Borah, along with Pathak, had come to Delhi on June 2 and invited the investigating officer to an inn at the posh Sunder Nagar in south Delhi.

The sacked minister asked Maheshwari, who was in the car outside the hotel, to come in with a bag containing Rs 10 lakh. On spotting the CBI team, they threw the bag containing the money in room number 213 and tried to escape. They were, however, overpowered, the CBI said.

The CBI also submitted in the court that the custodial interrogation of the accused was required to know the source of the total bribe money of Rs 17 lakh.

Meanwhile, the court today deferred the hearing on the bail applications of both accused to June 7.

Earlier, the former minister alleged that his political rivals, who were wary of his growing popularity as a leader, had framed him in the case.

The CBI had lodged an FIR on June 2 against Borah and two others, including the journalist, for allegedly trying to pay a bribe of Rs 17 lakh to an officer of the investigating agency to influence the outcome of an eight-year-old murder case of a student union leader Danial Toppo.

Bora is a suspect in the case in which Toppo, the then district president of the All-Assam Tea Tribe Students’ Union, was killed during the 1996 assembly polls in the state. The CBI has registered cases under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code for conspiring to bribe the investigating officer.

Student Leader Murder Case
Minister asked me to drop plea for CBI probe: Mother
Bijay Sankar Bora
Tribune News Service

Guwahati, June 4
Silonti Topno, mother of the slain tea tribe students’ leader Daniel, yesterday alleged that Assam minister Ripun Bora had tried to coerce the family to withdraw case in the Gauhati High Court seeking a CBI probe into the killing.

“I became almost sure about Ripun Bora’s involvement in murder of my son Daniel when the minister had come to our house to ask me to force my other son to withdraw the high court case seeking a CBI probe into the murder,” Silonti told the media here.

She said the minister had come to her house after he won the 2006 Assembly election to ask her to have the case withdrawn. “God is there. Now it is almost proved that Bora was involved in the killing of my son,” she said.

Daniel Topno was a social worker and a leader of tea tribe students. He unsuccessfully contested the Assembly election from the Gohpur constituency as an Independent candidate in 1996 after being denied ticket by the Congress. Ripun Bora, who was the Congress candidate, also lost the election as Topno got over 11,000 votes much to the advantage of the winning Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) candidate Ganesh Kutum.

Following Topno’s murder on September 27, 2000, the then AGO MLA of Gohpur and Speaker of the Assam Assembly, Ganesh Kutum, named Ripun Bora as one of the accused in the case. Bora immediately took anticipatory bail. Bora won the Assembly election from Gohpur in 2001 on Congress ticket and became a minister.

The Gohpur police though registered a case (No 183/2000) following the murder of Daniel Topno, there was hardly any progress in the investigation and Topno’s brother Santosh, a constable in the Arunachal Pradesh Police, moved the Gauhati High Court in December 2000 seeking a CBI probe into the case.

After five years, the Gauhati High Court in May 2005 asked the CBI to take over the case. The state government then filed a review petition in the high court stating that there was no need for a CBI probe saying that the CID in the state’s police could investigate the case. The high court then rejected the state government’s petition in August 2005 and sticked to its earlier order favouring a CBI probe.

Oppn demands Gogoi govt’s dismissal
Bijay Sankar Bora
Tribune News Service

Guwahati, June 4
The opposition parties in Assam have demanded the dismissal of the Congress government in the state in wake of the arrest of state education minister Ripun Bora in New Delhi by the CBI on bribery charge and his subsequent sacking from the Congress-led coalition government.

The main opposition party, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), today submitted a memorandum to Assam Governor Lt-Gen Ajai Kumar Singh asking him to recommend the immediate dismissal of Tarun Gogoi led government over the issue.

The Governor assured an AGP delegation, which met him in the Raj Bhawan, that he would look into the matter.

Meanwhile, the All Assam Students’ Union too demanded the dismissal of the Tarun Gogoi government alleging that the Chief Minister was protecting not only Ripun Bora but also at least another couple of ministers who were involved in murder and other criminal activities.

The AGP accused the Chief Minister of ignoring the alleged involvement of Ripun Bora in the murder of his political rival Daniel Topno and inducting him in the state Cabinet during the two consecutive Congress ministries, including the current one.

The AGP said the minister’s “disgraceful” act had confirmed his involvement in the political murder of Daniel Toppo and demanded exemplary punishment to him for it.

AGP president Brindabon Goswami alleged that the Ripun Bora episode was just a whiff of the rot within the Congress-led coalition government in Assam that had resorted to rampant corruption.

“Mr Gogoi can’t escape his responsibility by just sacking the arrested minister. He must quit office owning moral responsibility for the shameful act of one of his Cabinet colleagues,” the AGP said in the memorandum submitted to the Governor.

Meanwhile, the All Assam Tea Tribes Students Association, the organisation where the murdered Daniel Topno belonged, has called for a statewide bandh on June 9 in protest against the involvement of Ripun Bora in the murder. It will burn effigies of the Chief Minister and arrested minister Ripun Bora in all tea tribes dominated areas and tea estates in Assam.