Assam ex-minister held under Immoral Traffic Act has a colourful past

When Mahanta directed the police to remove Bora from the stage, things got worse. Bora only stepped up the tone of his abuses. The Chief Minister was embarrassed enough to drop him from the Cabinet the very next day and expel him from the party just a few days later.

Two days ago, Bora — still an MLA — was picked up by police from a hotel hardly 200 m away from his home, and booked under the Prevention of Immoral Traffic Act. Bora was reportedly arrested following complaints by some guests of the hotel. At that time he was not only drunk, but was accompanied by two women, who later told the police that they were brought to the hotel room “to massage the former minister”.

Yesterday, he was produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Guwahati, who remanded him to one day’s judicial custody. Two other women were also arrested later on basis of confessional statements made by first two women arrested from the hotel room along with the former minister.

A constant source of embarrassment for Mahanta for the past two years, Bora was earlier one of his closest aides. In fact, he is said to have managed a number of crises for the Chief Minister.

If Bora himself is to be believed, it was he who played a crucial role in rescuing Mahanta from the controversial Letter of Credit (LoC) scandal that broke in the state veterinary department. He also played a crucial role when former Home minister Bhrigu Kumar Phukan joined hands with dropped PWD minister Atul Bora to launch a campaign to oust Mahanta.

However, as Food and Civil Supplies minister, Bora had landed himself in a major scam relating to supply of wheat under Public Distribution System, currently being probed by CBI.

Bora has constantly been in news for his eccentric behaviour. On January 17, 1999, as a guest of honour in the state Shilpi Divas function at Guwahati, instead of delivering a speech, he started singing a song rather tunelessly, compelling Education Minister Thaneswar Boro to leave in a huff.

A few months later he hit headlines for allegedly trying to misbehave with some girl athletes he was distributing prizes to at a state-level tournament.

After being dropped from ministry last November, Bora decided to launch a newspaper, and had even got a former vice-chancellor of the Gauwhati University as its editor. The newspaper, however, is yet to see light of day.

It is ironical that in days when he was AGP’s spokesman, Bora was media’s favourite, forever delivering witty one-liners against Phukan and Atul Bora. But in past couple of years, the former minister has stayed in headlines only for his eccentricities and embarrassing antics.