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Journalism of Courage
GUWAHATI, JUNE 15: The CBI today filed its charge-sheet in the Sanjay Ghose case naming ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Barua and 10 others as the prime accused. Nearly two years have passed since the abduction and murder of renowned NGO activist Ghose by the United Liberation Front of Assam.
The charge-sheet filed in the court of the special judge here today, however, failed to confirm the murder of Ghose due to lack of direct evidence but quoted witnesses which point to the fact that Ghose was murdered in a heinous manner.
Two of the eleven accused incidentally have been killed in police encounters, two are in judicial custody, the remaining seven including Barua are stated to be absconding.
Sanjoy Ghose, secretary of Avard-Ne, who had arrived in Assam in early 1996, had been working for rural development in the world-famous Majuli river-island in the Brahmaputra in upper Assam, was abducted by ULFA activists on July 4, 1997 and subsequently murdered and thrown into the red river.
The charge-sheetfiled under section 120 (B) of the IPC, read with sections 364 and 365, accuse the 11 of abduction with a purpose to kill. It also said that the activist was abducted on the bidding of ULFA chief Paresh Barua accusing him of working against the interest of the group and of being an Army informer.
But, interestingly, as the charge-sheet states, while Barua had directed his boys to “arrest” Ghose and produce him before the central committee of the ULFA for “trial”, the local activists killed him instead. Ghose was also “found” by the ULFA to be working as an agent of the RAW, it said. The CBI, after examining and interrogating about 250 persons in the river island, also came to the conclusion that Ghose might have been killed with a gun-shot, which was heard by some boatmen, the very night after he was whisked away while returning from inspecting a goat farm at Mekheligaon.
