Rumi th off to jail

*    Borkhola MLA arrested, remanded to judicial custody for twelve days, pleads illness

*    Chauhan’s wife surrenders, police raid car lifter’s Mirza house, arms & fake IDs seized 

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, April 16: Borkhola MLA Rumi th on Wednesday was sent to judicial custody till April 27 by the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Kamrup in connection with the case related to her alleged links with a car-lifting gang. This came about after her bail plea was rejected by the Gauhati High Court for the third time, and she was arrested on April 14 in connection with two cases lodged at the Dispur and Azara police stations.

The CJM Court has asked the Gauhati Central Jail authority to conduct a health checkup of Rumi th on April 17 and submit the report on that day itself, as she is claiming to be unwell. After going through the report, the court will announce its course of action accordingly.

The Borkhola MLA from Cachar district was arrested under sections 120(B) (crimil conspiracy), 212 (harbouring offender), 420 (cheating), and 468 (forgery) of the IPC, for her possible links with notorious car-lifter Anil Chauhan.

Meanwhile, in a dramatic development in the ongoing investigation into the tionwide car theft racket led by Anil Chauhan, his wife and Congress worker Rita Chauhan surrendered before the Guwahati police on Wednesday.

Following Rita’s confession, a midnight raid was conducted at a rented house of Anil Chouhan, located at Mirza’s Jamortal, on Wednesday. From there, police recovered 4 guns, 17 rounds of bullets, 43 number plates of cars and one Swift Desire car (AS-01BD-1120).

Police also recovered passport, bank passbooks, Aadhaar card and auto registration cards from the Jamortal house of Chauhan. The police team was led by DCP Jitmol Doley and Azara police station OC Prafulla Bora.

Police said most of the recovered documents are forged but no further arrest has been made in the case yet. “Another raid was conducted by police at Chauhan’s Jamortal house on Wednesday evening,” sources added.

It may be mentioned here that 17 bank accounts of Anil Chauhan have been frozen by the police since his arrest.

Although Anil Chauhan’s wife is currently being interrogated, police are yet to find any documentary evidence against her. “It seems she surrendered out of fear, after a Delhi Police team reached the city two days ago to interrogate Chauhan and enquired about Rita,” sources said.

However, it came to the fore that Rita had arranged Assam Assembly car passes for her husband on the recommendations of Congress MLA Rumi th. During interrogation, Chauhan’s wife also revealed that she had met some senior police officials through Rumi th, who was brought to her house by one Iqbal Hussain.

The Borkhola MLA’s me first surfaced after Anil Chauhan, ‘most wanted’ car thief in several states, was found to possess car passes for entering the State Assembly premises. The police suspect that Chauhan received political patroge from Rumi th, which helped him to carry on his crimil activities unhindered.

Rumi on Monday, had broken her silence for the first time on this issue. She claimed that there is a political conspiracy behind the accusations against her. Hotly contesting reports in a section of the media that she was avoiding the police, Rumi claimed that she was unwell but was available at her official residence in Dispur.

Earlier, the Gauhati High Court had rejected two interim anticipatory bail applications of Rumi in connection with a case registered at Dispur police station and another at Azara police station.

On April 8, Rumi’s estranged second husband Jacky Zakir was arrested from his house in Badarpur in Karimganj district, while her persol security officer (PSO) Bedabrata Barpatra Gohain was arrested from the Special Branch headquarters in Guwahati. 

Anil Chauhan had been bbed in the city along with his accomplice on April 4. The kingpin of a well-organised car-lifting gang active in Delhi, Harya, Mumbai and Bangalore, Chauhan had played the main role in spreading its activities from Jammu and Kashmir to the Northeastern region. He is also involved in illegal trade of arms and ammunition, police sources said.