Opposition demands Gogoi’s resignation

BY OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

GUWAHATI

June 3: The arrest of Congress minister Ripun Borah in a corruption case rocked the state’s political scenario with the Opposition parties demanding the resignation of Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi.

Daniel Toppo, district president of the All-Assam Tea Tribe Students’ Union, was Mr Borah’s rival in the 1996 Assembly polls. Mr Borah lost the election to the AGP candidate because of Mr Toppo. The case was handed over to the CBI for investigation in 2001 after the Assam police could not make any breakthrough into the murder that took place on September 27, 2000. Mr Borah, who had a long innings as Assam Pradesh Congress Committee spokesman, is a suspect in the murder case and had been questioned several times by the CBI. The minister is claimed to have approached the CBI officer through a middleman to negotiate the outcome of the investigation into the murder. Mr Borah’s associate Mukul Pathak, a journalist with an Assamese newspaper, was also taken into custody at Delhi airport. Mr Ramesh Maheswari, a Delhi-based businessman who allegedly supplied the money to Mr Borah, has also been taken into custody.

The CBI registered a case under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The Opposition Asom Gana Parishad has sought the resignation of chief minister Tarun Gogoi. Opposition leader Chandra Mohan Patowary told this newspaper that the arrest of a state Cabinet minister has exposed the corruption in the Congress regime. Even after being named in a murder case Mr Borah was a member of the Gogoi Cabinet for the last two consecutive terms. There are many such faces in the Assam cabinet, he claimed.

Mr Tarun Gogoi, who is in New Delhi, however told reporters that the law would take its own course.

Former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta also demanded the resignation of Mr Gogoi. He said this exposed the "self-proclaimed Mr Clean" image of Mr Gogoi and the Congress party.