Noted social worker Sanjoy Ghose’s widow, Sumita, has claimed that the ULFA ‘‘punished’’ her husband ‘‘for exposing the unholy nexus’’ between contractors, corrupt government officials and militants. She was deposing before additional ad hoc sessions court judge P.K. Phukan at the trial on Ghose’s abduction and subsequent murder, which began yesterday.Sumita told the judge the militant group had launched a campaign against Ghose and his NGO, AVARD-NE, even branding him an agent of the Army. ‘‘ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Barua even contacted BBC’s Kolkata correspondent, Subir Bhowmik, through whom he wanted to talk to me,’’ said Sumita.She said Barua set three preconditions for Sanjoy’s freedom: winding up of AVARD-NE in Assam, suspension of army operations and handover of Ghose to a third party. According to Sumita, even as she expressed her inability to agree to the conditions, Ghose was killed and his body never recovered.In his deposition before the court, a Majuli boatman today confirmed Ghose was taken hostage by a four-member ULFA gang and taken across the Brahmaputra river to an island.The court has called Sumita for a second session next Tuesday. Ghose was abducted on July 4, 1997, from Majuli, the island where his NGO was working. While the ULFA first claimed he had died after falling off a cliff in Arunachal Pradesh, the CBI later confirmed he was murdered.
