Former Chairman of ABOCWWB arrested for Rs 121 crore bank fraud case in New Delhi

GUWAHATI: Sleuths of the Chief Minister’s Special Vigilance Cell (SVC) along with Delhi police arrested the hitherto absconding Gautam Baruah in New Delhi at around 3 pm on Monday. The arrest has been made with reference to a corruption case when Baruah was the officiating Chairman of the Assam Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board, Guwahati (ABOCWWB) from 2011 to 2017. He was arrested from a rented guest house in the Krishna Nagar area of Safdarjung Enclave in the national capital. The arrested accused will be produced before the local Court in New Delhi on Wednesday, for seeking transit remand and to produce him before the Special Court at Guwahati.

Baruah is one of the prime accused in Vigilance PS Case No. 09/2017.

The case was registered on the basis of a complaint lodged by Tapan Sarma, IAS, the then Labour Commissioner-cum-Member Secretary of ABOCWWB, Guwahati, about the forgery and large-scale misappropriation of the Board funds, by his predecessor Member Secretary and Chairman. On the basis of an inquiry conducted by the CMs SVC, Assam, in 2017, a case was registered vide Vigilance PS case no. 09/2017 u/s 120(B)/406/409/468/471/420 IPC R/W Sec 13(2) of P.C Act of 1988.

During investigation, it was established that there was a criminal conspiracy by Chohan Doley, IAS, the then Member Secretary of ABOCWWB, Gautam Baruah, the then Chairman ABOCWWB, Nagendra Nath Choudhury, the then Administrative officer, ABOCWWB and Priyangshu Boiragi, proprietor of M/s Purbashree Printing House. The criminal conspiracy resulted in misappropriation of the funds of more than Rs 121 crores, from the fund accumulated through the collection of cess of the ABOCWWB in the Bank account.

Accordingly, the accused C Doley NN Choudhury and P Boiragi were arrested in 2017, and a charge sheet was filed for their involvement in the crime, in 2018.

Despite repeated notices to appear before investigation, Gautam Baruah evaded the investigating agency and absconded along with his wife, from their usual place of stay in Guwahati, since 2017.

A non-bailable warrant of arrest was also issued against him by the Special Court at Guwahati last year. The process of attachment of his properties had also been initiated to compel his appearance before investigation. A cash reward of Rs one lakh had also been announced by the CM’s SVC, for any information leading to his arrest.

The investigation team of CMs SVC has been in close liaison with Delhi Police for over one year, in tracking the absconder, after getting inputs regarding his whereabouts in New Delhi, last year. After getting inputs, a team of officers had been camping in New Delhi for the last five days, when the location was tracked to the North East Guest house, in Krishna Nagar area of Safdarjung enclave in New Delhi.

Accordingly, the surveillance teams were launched with the assistance of Delhi Police Crime Branch and the accused was identified, detained and brought to the Crime Branch Police Station at Daryaganj, where he was arrested by the Investigating Officer (IO) of the case.

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