New Delhi, Nov 7, 2005
A minister in the Congress government in Assam is
under CBI scanner in connection with the kidnapping
and murder of a London-based NRI businessman.
Highly-placed CBI sources said the agency had so
far made eight arrests in the case and was investigating
the matter further as the family of the murdered industrialist
Protul Deb had filed a complaint with the investigating
agency alleging a minister in Tarun Gogoi government
was the mastermind.
The sources said the minister's name surfaced after
the complaint made by relatives of the deceased and
the agency plans to question the minister who is also
believed to be a relative of the victim.
Deb, husband of Dolly Deb, elder sister of Assam
Social Welfare Minister Gautam Roy, was kidnapped
along with his friend Sadhan Nath on March 17, 2004
while they were on their way to Mizoram.
A resident of London, he had unsucessfully contested
the last assembly elections as a BJP candidate against
his brother-in-law.
His skeletal remains were recovered from Boncherra
in Hailakandi near Assam-Mizoram border, which were
later brought to AIIMS for postmortem and DNA tests
confirmed it was of the NRI businessman. (Agencies)
