Colleagues involved in abduction-murder of Assam engineer: CM

Pathak,second in the hierarchy of the engineering wing of the state agriculture department,was allegedly abducted from near Abhayapuri in Bongaigaon district while he was returning to Guwahati after conducting an inquiry in some projects in Dhubri district in western Assam on May 2. His bullet-ridden body was recovered the next morning.

Faizul Islam,an executive engineer,who too was travelling with Pathak however remained traceless until he surfaced on May 27 claiming he was released by the abductors.

While Pathaks family complained of foul play by some of his colleagues,the CID too has been probing this angle of involvement of some departmental officers in the abduction and murder.

Noor Islam,a personal driver of Faizul Islam who was driving the official vehicle from which Pathak and Islam were allegedly kidnapped,has been also taken into custody. The CID is still trying to ascertain why a personal driver was driving an official vehicle on that particular day.

The CID,which had last week announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for anybody providing information leading to identification of Pathaks killers,picked up five members of the KLO from different places in Dhubri district on Saturday. They are Dilip Barman,Aziz Miyan,Madan Adhikari,Chandan Sarkar,Putul Rai and Karen Bepari.