The National Investigation Agency’s first probe might come to naught
By Kanhaiah Bhelari
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) was constituted after 26/11 to perform as an umbrella agency for sleuths. It looks like it may have failed its very first test. But is it incompetent or did it deliberately goof up in the face of political pressure?
The brief was to probe the alleged politician-bureaucrat-militant nexus which was siphoning Central funds in Assam’s North Cachar Hills district.
The North Cachar Hills district is an autonomous district formed under the sixth schedule of the Constitution and is governed by the North Cachar Hills Autonomous District Council (NCHADC).
A deputy commissioner heads the district, which is headquartered in Haflong. But most decisions are made by the NCHADC, which is headed by a chief executive member selected from among the councilors.
Apparently, the Assam government was not too happy about the NIA probe. But reports from various intelligence sources in the north-east had the Centre worried. The reports, filed in April-May 2009, hinted that part of the embezzled funds could be funding insurgents, especially the Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel Garlosa). The reports blamed this infusion of funds for the worsening situation in the North Cachar Hills, as more funds put more and sophisticated weapons in the insurgents’ hands.
Between March and August 2009, more than 63 people were killed and 600 houses were burnt in the district. That 78 companies of Central forces were sent to boost the state police shows how bad the situation was. The DHD(J), also known as Black Widow, is a breakaway faction of the Dimasa National Security Force. Their main demand is a separate state called Dimaraji.
On June 3, 2009, DHD(J) chairman Jewel Garlosa was arrested and on September 14 most cadres surrendered after striking deals with the state and the Centre. Deputy Commissioner S. Jagannathan said: “After the surrender of the DHD(J) men, the situation is becoming normal. Most of the Central forces have gone back.”
Former home secretary Madhukar Gupta had recommended the NIA probe immediately after the alleged nexus came to his notice. The Union home ministry sought Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s approval to proceed. As an approval was not forthcoming, Home Minister P. Chidambaram asked the NIA to proceed. By law, the home minister does not need the state’s consent to probe terror-related cases.
Sources said that throughout the probe the state did not cooperate with the NIA and repeatedly tried to scuttle it. The new Home Secretary G.K. Pillai visited Assam on July 30-31, 2009, to assess the situation.
By August 2009, the NIA had unearthed enough evidence to book a number of people and it filed a detailed report. Worried by the report, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the meeting of chief ministers that among other things he was concerned about the situation in North Cachar Hills district. Gogoi later told the press that he felt the premier was “wrongly briefed”.
Gogoi’s statement got Chidambaram’s goat and he called for a meeting on September 1, 2009. Gogoi visited Haflong on August 29 and then went to Delhi. Sources said Chidambaram grilled Gogoi based on the reports from the intelligence agencies, the NIA and the home secretary. It is known that Pillai upheld the NIA’s findings. A stunned Gogoi had no concrete answer for Chidambaram’s queries. It seemed the NIA was on the verge of a victory. But it was not to be.
Commendably, the NIA wound up the probe in five months and 15 days. It talked to 317 witnesses and filed a charge sheet against 14. According to the report, the nexus siphoned Rs 1,000 crore between 2004 and mid-2009. The money formed part of the Centre’s grant for development projects under the NCHADC. But the million-dollar question is—why did the NIA let off seven ministers, bureaucrats and a former Governor whom it names in the report?
The seven ministers named by the NIA are Rockybul Hussain, Khorsing Ingty, Akon Bora, Chandan Brahma, Gautam Roy, Ajanta Neog and Himanta Biswa Sarma. Also named are Haflong MLA G.C. Langthasa and Kaliabor MP Dip Gogoi, Tarun Gogoi’s brother. R.H. Khan, former deputy director, social welfare department, and NCHADC principal secretary Anil Kumar Baruah allegedly aided these legislators.
The report has also named former Assam Governor Lt Gen. Ajai Singh, who was in office from June 5, 2003, to July 4, 2008. S. Jagannathan, who was then the Governor’s ADC, is also named.
The NIA was asked to probe the politician-bureaucrat-militant nexus, but there is no politician among the 14. Except Mohet Hojai who was with the little-known Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC). But in the charge sheet his occupation is given as ex-chief executive member of the NCHADC and member of the DHD(J).
Ironically, 12 accused are shown only as DHD(J) cadre, while among them is a contractor and a former employee of HSBC Bank. Of the 14, 12 are Assamese and two are from Mizoram, Joseph Mizo and Malsawmkimi. Among the officers named are Hill Area Development commissioner Prem Saran, district forest officer Mohammad Jaman, public health engineering department additional chief engineer K. Saikiya, District Rural Development Agency project director H.P. Rajkumar and PWD additional chief engineer Kamala Prasad.
The report has named Baruah as a major beneficiary of the fraud. He had a five-year term as deputy commissioner of the district and principal secretary of the NCHADC. Sources said the staff at the Haflong circuit house vividly remember the colorful soirees he hosted in his favorite room, No. 5. Documents available with THE WEEK say he withdrew Rs 18.5 crore from state funds without proper documentation. Strangely, the NIA chose not to interrogate Baruah, Ajai Singh or any of the bureaucrats and ministers.
Former chief executive member of the NCHADC Depolal Hojai allegedly told the NIA that he had paid Rs 50 lakh to Ajai Singh in January 2008 to secure the CEM’s post. When contacted by THE WEEK, Depolal declined to confirm or share his deposition.
But, he said, “The results of the NCHADC elections were announced on December 4, 2007. But the winners assumed office after 35 days. Why the delay?” He said Ajai Singh spent more time in Haflong than in Guwahati. He demanded a probe into the utilization of funds allotted to the NCHADC since its inception in 1952.
A senior bureaucrat in Guwahati told THE WEEK that the NIA had sought permission to interrogate ministers, but was refused. He said as long as these ministers were at large, the Centre would not be able to stop insurgency in Assam. Allegedly, the initial intelligence briefs had named 11 ministers as responsible for aiding the growth of DHD(J) and other insurgent groups, including ULFA.
One of the witnesses told the NIA that he paid a senior police officer Rs 1.3 crore. As instructed, the money was handed over in two installments to a junior officer. The junior officer has been under suspension for more than five years now for different reasons.
Posted in NCH district for many years, he was transferred by a reluctant state government only after the Centre issued strict orders. The senior officer is now retired and stays in Guwahati, but commands considerable influence. Allegedly, he had gone soft on the DHD(J) while he was in office.
Another senior officer told THE WEEK on condition of anonymity that the retired officer in question had engineered secret killings in Guwahati when Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was chief minister. Apparently, this officer had also ordered the hit on Frankie Dimasa, DHD(J)’s foreign secretary.
Frankie was killed in Guwahati within hours of Gorlosa’s arrest in Bangalore. “He controls Gogoi, too”, said the officer. “Frankie had evidence of the money he had paid to the officer for going soft against the DHD(J).”
Sources said the NIA knew about the role of this police officer and other bureaucrats. But the national agency passed the buck. Concluding its charges, the NIA wrote: “Since the involvement of public servants in... misappropriation of government funds and their criminal misconduct, forgery, etc., has been revealed, the matter is being referred to the Central government for investigation by the CBI after obtaining necessary consent from the state of Assam or [after] investigation by the Anti-Corruption Branch of Assam Police.”
The Centre will have to make a political decision in this case as Assam is ruled by the Congress. Those days are long gone, in which our politicians put honesty above power. So there is no option for the Centre but to go soft as stern action would lead to the collapse of the Gogoi government and damage the Congress’s image.
Meanwhile, the state is dragging its feet. Among those charge-sheeted is Niranjan Hojai, DHD(J)’s military chief. He is yet to be produced in court despite being in a government-run camp for surrendered cadre. The NIA sought the state’s help, but the government has a soft corner for him, as he led the surrender.
Before the NIA probe, the state had set up the Justice R.K. Manisana Singh commission in August 2008. In early 2009, Singh submitted his report confirming political and bureaucratic malpractice. Instead of acting on the findings, the state formed another committee to formulate measures to monitor and supervise utilization of government funds.
Just to put the scale of corruption in perspective—THE WEEK found that an accused has property worth Rs 40 crore in Noida, a lagoon-side bungalow in Kumarakom, Kerala, and a hotel in his son’s name in Goa. Another accused IAS officer bought a three-bedroom luxury flat in Noida.
Assam is now making all efforts to sweep the probe under the carpet.
The NCHADC, which was frozen by Governor J.B. Pattanaik, is back to work after the Guwahati High Court granted it reprieve on January 7, 2010. The state had cleared them on December 13, 2009, but the Governor refused to approve the cabinet’s proposal. Consequently, some councillors went to court and got the reprieve.
Meanwhile, Gogoi persuaded all Opposition members of the NCHADC to cross over, including Depolal. Observers say his next move will be to shift all blame on to Ajai Singh, who was close to the BJP. The Centre will also get a scapegoat that way. So it is checkmate. Who lost? The taxpayer.
Black Jewel
Jewel Garlosa chaired the Dimasa National Security Force (DNSF), before its cadres surrendered en masse in 1995. So Garlosa launched the Dima Halam Daogah and continued the fight for Dimaraji state. Later, Pranab Nunisa, military chief of DHD, ousted Garlosa on charges of anti-DHD activity and took over the organisation.
In 2003, Nunisa struck a deal with the Assam government and surrendered. Garlosa, however, was not ready to give up and he formed the DHD(J) on March 31, 2003.
On the same day, militants belonging to Hmar People’s Convention-Democrats abducted and killed 23 Dimasa tribal men from two villages in Cachar and torched 450 houses. Seventeen of the victims were married; their widows called themselves Black Widows and swore vengeance against the Hmar. Extending support to them, DHD(J) also came to be known as the Black Widow.
DHD(J) is reported to have links with National Socialist Council of Nagaland and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland.
Two government projects badly affected by DHD(J) violence are the east west corridor project and the broad gauge conversion project between Lumding and Silchar. It had also made several attacks on security forces, killing seven CRPF personnel in an ambush and six Assam Police personnel in another.
via The Week
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