Pradip Kumar Brahma,47,the Bodo Peoples Front MLA who was arrested last week following allegations that he had personally incited miscreants in attacking Muslim villages and setting houses on fire in Assams Kokrajhar district,had journeyed from being a student activist to forging militant links before entering politics. Brahma,father of three sons,has been booked under IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy,rioting,carrying weapons,unlawful assembly,mischief with fire or explosive substances and criminal intimidation. Seven FIRs,one each by the headmen of seven Muslim villages,have been registered against him at the Dotma police station,with the police finally registering one case. He was a front-ranking member of the Volunteer Force that the All Bodo Students Union had set up during the early days of the Bodoland movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He did not hold any specific post in the Volunteer Force,but was a very active member whom successive ABSU presidents trusted, recalls a college teacher in Kokrajhar. When a group of former ABSU leaders and others headed by Hagrama Mohilary formed the militant group Bodoland Liberation Tigers on June 16,1996,Brahma became one of the most trusted aides of the chief. According to a police officer who had served in Kokrajhar,Brahma was unofficial head of the action group that was directly under Mohilarys control. Brahma had not wanted to become an MLA. He seemed happier as a businessman and contractor,but was almost forced into contesting by his mentor Mohilary, said the college teacher. Brahma owns a Vodafone dealership agency in Kokrajhar apart from a road construction company. Ahead of the 2011 elections,Brahma,who passed Higher Secondary in 1992,declared that he and his wife Phulshri together had movable assets worth Rs 1.13 crore and immovable assets worth Rs 37 lakh in addition to several plots of land,a house and several vehicles. He declared he was neither accused of any punishable offence nor had any serious case pending against him. During his ABSU/Volunteer Force days,he had been arrested for the first time while returning from Dimapur in Nagaland. There is no specific record about why exactly he was arrested and what business he had in Dimapur,the Northeasts best-known arms bazaar. There was no major case against Pradip Kumar Brahma because though he was very close to Mohilary in the erstwhile BLT,he was hardly in the limelight. He was not an office-bearer in that outfit, said Khagen Sarma,Assam Police Additional DG (Special Branch). The BLTs militant history includes blowing up several coaches of the New Delhi-bound Brahmaputra Mail in December 1999,which left about 50 dead and many maimed for life. Its members were also held responsible for a major blast in the heart of Guwahati in 1992 the group hadnt formed formally then that had left at least 20 dead. The government has,however,withdrawn cases against most BLT cadres following the Bodo Accord of February 10,2003. Clause 12.1 provided for withdrawal of such cases. A senior Assam Police official said about 1,000 ex-militants were subsequently absorbed in various central para-military forces,including the CRPF,Assam Rifles and BSF. The top rung of the BLT has switched over to politics. Mohilary wound up the group,formed the party BPF and became chief of the Bodoland Territorial Council. His party has been a Congress ally since 2006; its 10 MLAs helped Tarun Gogoi form the government after the Congress fell short of a majority. The Congress now has a majority but its alliance with the BPF continues. Chandan Brahma,Mohilarys deputy in the outfit,has been a minister since 2006 and currently holds three portfolios. Four of the 10 BPF legislators each in the 2006-2011 and 2011-2016 assemblies have either been former BLT militants or had close links to the outfit. The current ones are Chandan Brahma,Hitesh Basumatary and Maneswar Brahma,apart from Pradip Brahma. Brahma,remanded in judicial custody,is currently admitted to Kokrajhar Civil Hospital following directives from the court. We have gone by the law. There were serious allegations against him,including evidence based on statements of witnesses, said DGP J N Choudhury. The law will take its own course. If the court says he is not guilty then he will be released, says CM Gogoi.
