Cashier with ULFA links’ held

The police found that Bora, hailing from Sipajhar in Darrang district had links with an ULFA leader who is suspected to have kept a huge sum of money with him for safe custody.

But the ULFA leader subsequently died, following which, police said, other ULFA leaders were pressing him return the money. On failing to return the sum, Bora, police said, stole money from the bank to the tune of Rs eight lakh, and set documents on fire to destroy evidence ofmisappropriation.

While the bank branch caught fire on February 25, the police began suspecting foul play from day one, as only selected records were destroyed. The locks of the room which caught fire were not broken but opened with keys, which were in possession of Bora, apart from another senior officer, enabling police to zero in on him.

Bora, arrested yesterday, was produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Kamrup and remanded to five days’ police custody, police officers investigating the case said.

The police in Nagaon, the home district of Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, had last month arrested as many as 16 government employees, including a junior engineer of the State Irrigation Department and Public Works Department, apart from some school teachers for allegedly paying money to the ULFA on a regular basis.