GUWAHATI: A constable of the 25 APBN has been arrested by the Assam Police officials for his alleged role in the kidnapping of the three ONGC employees earlier this month.
According to reports, the constable identified as Basanta Boragohain was in charge of the security of the ONGC rig site at Lakwa field in Sivasagar on the day of the abduction. Read more
Boragohain was absconding since then and was arrested from Sadiya on Monday.
Taking to his Twitter handle DGP Assam wrote, "Basanta Buragohai, a constable of 25th AP(ONGC) Bn for actively participating in the abduction and for being a part of the entire conspiracy along with two other bad characters apart from the ULFA(I) leaders."
It is to be mentioned here that on April 23, a team of the Army, accompanied by Assam and Nagaland Police personnel, rescued two of the three ONGC officials from the clutch of the ULFA-I along the Indo-Myanmar border on Saturday.
The search operation is still going on for the rescue of the third ONGC official. Affirming the development, State DGP Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta in his Twitter handle said, "So far security forces have been able to rescue two of the three victims from near the Indo-Myanmar border in Mon district of Nagaland. The two rescued are Alakesh Saikia and Mohini Mohan Gogoi. Efforts are going on to rescue the third official, Ritul Saikia." Read more
Meanwhile, the ULFA-I claimed in a statement that the 73 Brigade of the Indian Army, 35th Battalion of Assam Rifles, and Nagaland armed police were involved in the operation.
The statement said the forces encircled the ULFA cadres at Totok in Nagaland's Mon district and a series of encounters took place in and around the Chinkgu village in the area on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday.
"Keeping in mind the security of the abducted ONGC employees, our cadres left them in the safe custody of the local Tangsha Naga villagers.
Alakesh Saikia and Mohini Mohan Gogoi were recovered safely by the security forces, but we have no idea what happened to Ritul Saikia," the statement said. According to the statement, the ULFA is checking whether Saikia, an assistant junior engineer with ONGC, was hit during the encounters. It, however, disowned the responsibility for such an eventuality.
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