ASSAM: DIARY RECOVERED FROM COAL MAFIA SENT FOR FORENSIC TEST

15 July 2018:

The Karimganj police have sent the diary recovered from the house of coal mafia Abdul Ahad Choudhury to the forensic laboratory in Guwahati for a test. The police suspect that the handwriting is not that of Choudhury.

“The police have sent the diary to Guwahati for a forensic test. We feel that it was not his (Choudhury’s) handwriting,” Karimganj Deputy Commissioner Pranab Talukdar told INSIDENE.

“Even I am accused of taking money. This is not correct,” Talukdar said.

The discovery of the diary had stirred up a hornet’s nest. Choudhury had allegedly written in details about his payment of money to a section of politicians and senior officers from the police department and the district administration to protect his illegal business. He was arrested by the police on July 9.

According to an unverified document, accessed by INSIDENE, 36 criminal cases involving land grabbing, illegal transport of coal, kidnapping for ransom, possession of counterfeit currency, cheating, forgery, blackmail, theft, physical assault, threat, impersonation, etc. in Mizoram, Cachar and Karimganj district were earlier registered against Choudhury by the Barak Valley and Mizoram Police.

The document said Choudhury was running a coal syndicate in Barak Valley in collision with criminals by preparing fake challans to illegally transport coal from Meghalaya to Bangladesh. A large number of fake challans were detected and seized by the police following a search operation at his residence at Sutarkandi in Karimganj on July 12.

He was apparently in possession of fake identity cards purportedly issued by the offices of Deputy Commissioner and Circle Officer of Karimganj and other government agencies.

“Other incriminating documents, which were found written in different handwritings with vague descriptions of amounts of money collected and distributed wherein various persons are mentioned like MLAs, SPs, DC, etc. were found and seized on July 12,” the document said.

It also said that Choudhury had lured people, owning land next to the Indo-Bangladesh border, by promising to make them beneficiaries of government schemes if they part with their land for the construction of an international land port in Sutarkandi. He allegedly had signed a “fraudulent” agreement with more than 100 such land owners living in Sutarkandi by coercing and intimidating them and made them to believe that through him they will get more benefits.