Sutarkandi Land Scam: Former DC On Police Remand; ADC, Others Still Absconding

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

SILCHAR: One of the prime accused in the sensational multi-crore Sutarkandi International Land Port Authority of India land scam, former Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Karimganj Pradip Kumar Talukdar was produced before the CJM court here, which remanded him to two-day police custody on Monday. He was brought from Guwahati to the border town police headquarters on Sunday night. After playing truant for a long time, he was arrested by a team of Karimganj Police led by ASP Dr Debajit Nath from his Guwahati residence on Saturday night in connection with the Land Port Authority of India (LPAI) case number 756/19 under Section 120 (B)/420/468/471/409 IPC and other 19 cases. He has been allegedly involved in manipulation during land acquisition for LPAI at Karimganj. Earlier, he was suspended on July 19, 2019 when he was working at the Cooperative Department in Guwahati. Meanwhile, three others were already arrested in Karimganj with reference to these cases.

Another accused in the case — Nabarun Bhattacharjee, former ADC and presently the District Development Commissioner of Cachar — is absconding. Talking to the media, Karimganj SP Manobendra Deb Roy expressed his confidence that the ADC would soon be in the net.

The mastermind behind the land scam is Abdul Ahad, who is accused in several cases. He also reportedly designed the blueprint of the scam. He projected fictitious claimants with fake documents to claim compensation money against the land that was shown as acquired by the district administration for the Central government project of setting up the international land port at Sutarkandi near Karimganj town. The original land owners were kept in dark and deprived of their compensation money. Many officials fell into Ahad’s trap, sources informed.

Former Circle Officer Hemen Gohain Barua was arrested from Dergaon three months ago. Kanungo Mihir Malakar and Amin Pranjit Nath were also arrested. All the three are in judicial custody. Altogether 26 cases have been filed by the genuine land owners in Karimganj Police Station and on the basis of the FIRs, Ahad was arrested and sent to jail. Following subsequent interrogations by the police, he revealed the names of many others.

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