Sanjoy murder — CBI has tale, no proof

Ghose, it may be recalled, had, after completing successfully a rural development project in Rajasthan under the banner of Urmul Trust, shifted to Majuli island in upper Assam in April,1996, to float a new NGO called AVARD-NE.

But almost immediately after he began his mission, the ULFA grew suspicious and accused him of working against the ULFA by providing vital informationabout the rebel group to the Army.

Ghose, according to the CBI charge-sheet, was also accused by the ULFA of working on behalf of the RAW. What made the ULFA more suspicious was that Dr Sunil Kaul, a member of AVARD-NE, was a former Army officer.

At around 1 pm on July 4, 1997, Ghose was accosted by two ULFA activists Phatik Hatimota and Siraj Bora while he and Chandan Doley, a member of the NGO were returning to Kamalabari.

They were then taken to the house of one Ramnath Saikia of village Mudoigaon. Two or three more ULFA boys joined the group there. A few hours later the two were shifted to the house of one Someswar Saikia, headman of village Meraghar, where four more ULFA activists joined, and physically assaulted both Ghose and Doley. They were also threatened with dire consequences. One Amrit Dutta, one of the ULFA members meanwhile told Ghose that even if Paresh Barua, the ULFA commander-in-Chief would spare him, he (Dutta) would never do so and would kill him (Ghose) sooner or later.

Fromthere, the two were then shifted to village Bhaktidwar. Two more ULFA members Anjan Borthakur, general secretary of the Subansiri Anchalik Committee of the outfit, and Bhaskar Barua joined them there, following which Ghose and Doley were separated and taken in two different directions.

Ghose was taken by four ULFA boys (Amrit Dutta, Pradip Barua, Arup Barua and Bhaskar Barua) to Rabi-Chapori, a sub-island, with one Dulu singh Rajput, a local pony-cart owner later telling the CBI that he had ferried them across to Rabi-Chapori belonging to one Dharam Singh Doley.

From Rabi-Chapori, the group wanted to cross over to Sibsagar district South-East of the island. The next morning however, the boatman (one Abek Kutum) came, only to be dropped back on the other side by Bhaskar Barua, who brought back the boat to Rabi-Chapori.

Kutum later told the CBI that standing on the other bank, he saw the four boys drag a gunny bag into the boat and then sailing downstream towards the main stream of the Brahmaputra, fromwhere they returned after about 30 minutes, without the bag.

Kutum, the boatman, told the CBI during interrogation (the CBI interrogated about 250 persons in connection with the case) that he had heard one gun shot around mid-night, which might have killed Ghose.

But, the CBI, putting in its best efforts and even bringing in Army divers and sniffer dogs, failed to locate the body of Ghose. No direct evidence could be gathered even after the entire Rabi-Chapori and the bed of the stream in which the “gunny bag” was thrown into was dug up, the CBI charge-sheet mentioned.