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                   Vol.2, No.43 [*] September 15, 1997
                   -----------------------------------

                Some circumstantial evidence is very strong,
                    as when you find a trout in the milk.
                                - Thoreau
   ---------------------------------------------------------------------

1  SIT INTERROGATES TATA TEA MANAGING DIRECTOR	          [S:15-SEP-97]
   -------------------------------------------
   
   The Managing Director of Tata Tea Limited, Mr R.K.Krishna  Kumar  who
   arrived  Guwahati  on  September 13 on board a special TISCO aircraft
   was interrogated by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Assam
   Police at the Special Branch headquarters at Kahilipara  in  Guwahati
   amid tight  security.    Top-ranking police officials said Mr Krishna
   Kumar had given vital information relating to the issue of  the  Tata
   Tea giving medical assistance to ULFA cultural secretary Pranati Deka
   through  its  Medical  Aid Scheme, to set the stage for the arrest of
   the Dr Brojen Gogoi and General Manager in-charge Mr S.S.Dogra.
   
   Mr Dogra had played a major role in conceiving the medical assistance
   scheme and it is his signature that appears on almost  all  documents
   and  communiques pertaining to the granting of assistance to Pranati.
   Mr Dogra and Mr S.N.Kidwai, Executive Director of Tata Tea, had  told
   the  SIT  that they had knowingly accorded sanction to Pranati Deka's
   'application' for medical assistance and that they had  been  coerced
   into  doing  so  because  of threats and intimidatory telephone calls
   ostensibly from ULFA.
   
   Meanwhile,  the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) President, Mr
   Tarun Gogoi has said the Union  Home  Secretary,  Mr  K.Padmanabhaiah
   should  not have interceded on behalf of the corporate giant Tata Tea
   Limited, whose executives were interrogated by the Assam Police.   Mr
   Gogoi  said  in a press conference in Guwahati on September 14, if it
   was true that Padmanabhaiah had indeed called the Director General of
   Police,  Mr  K.Hrishikesan  and  instructed  him   to   desist   from
   interrogating  the tea executives, then he had overstepped his brief.
   'We do not approve of this,' Mr Gogoi said.
   

2  MAGOR PAID RS.15 MILLION TO NDFB		         [AT:13-SEP-97]
   --------------------------------
   
   The Director General of Police K.Hrishikesan  on  September  12  said
   that  tea  giant Williamson and Magor Limited had paid at least Rs.15
   million in Indian currency to National Democratic Front  of  Bodoland
   (NDFB)  ultras  on  the  basis  of  documents recovered from arrested
   militants.  Meanwhile, the Tata Tea officials said that  NDFB  demand
   for  100  sets  of  walkie-talkie  and  the  ULFA's demand for Rs.1.5
   million were refused by the company.
   

3  SEND BACK ILLEGAL BANGLA IMMIGRANTS: SHAHABUDDIN     [PTI:13-SEP-97]
   ------------------------------------------------
   
   Prominent  Muslim  leader  Syed  Shahabuddin  has  demanded  that all
   'Bangaladeshi immigrants' be identified and  sent  back.    'All  the
   illegal  immigrants  must  be  identified  by the due process of law,
   should be declared foreigners and sent out,'  he  said  in  Zee  TV's
   weekly programme  Aap  ki  Adalat.    He said the best way to achieve
   national integration was for  the  Hindus  and  Muslims  to  maintain
   separate  identities and yet be committed to the nation, according to
   a press release from Zee TV.
   

4  SBI FILES CASES ON SULFA SCHEME			  [S:13-SEP-97]
   -------------------------------
   
   The 100 per cent margin money scheme initiated by  the  former  Chief
   Minister,  late  Hiteshwar  Saikia  for  the misguided youths, mostly
   dreaded ULFA activists, has come to naught because of  poor  recovery
   of  loans  from the beneficiaries, while the nodal agency, State Bank
   of India, has filed 164 cases against the beneficiaries involving  an
   amount of   Rs.27.5  million.    Almost  all  the  beneficiaries  are
   reluctant to repay the loans resulting in closure of  the  scheme  by
   the Government in 1996.
   

5  ULFA CHIEF ACCUSES GOVT OF INDIA			  [S:13-SEP-97]
   --------------------------------
   
   The  ULFA  chairman,  Mr  Arabinda Rajkhowa, in a statement issued on
   September 12, alleged that the recent spate of killings  of  innocent
   people  of  various communities in Tamulpur area of Nalbari district,
   was the handiwork of the Government of India and asked the people not
   to take this as any other phenomenon.  He said, the  State  had  been
   witness  to this type of gory violence, where innocent Bodos, Rabhas,
   Koch-Rajbonshis, Kalitas, Brahmins, Hindus, Muslims etc, had been the
   victims in recent times, and reminded that the ULFA had always warned
   of this type of conspiracy to forment fratricidal killings.  He said,
   however, that even revolutionary outfits had fallen victims  to  this
   type of communalization of society in recent past.
   

6  BRIBE FOR DC, SP's TRANSFER: LIQUOR BARON ARRESTED	  [S:14-SEP-97]
   --------------------------------------------------
   
   The Tinsukia police arrested the 'liquor king'  of  Tinsukia,  Baldev
   Singh on   September   12.      Baldev  had  paid  Rs.60,000  to  the
   impersonator, Kushal Hazarika for getting the Deputy Commissioner and
   Superintendent Police of the district transferred.   Kushal  Hazarika
   was  arrested  recently  for  impersonating  as the Principal Private
   Secretary of the Chief Minister of Assam.  He  had  confessed  Baldev
   Singh  had  paid him Rs.60,000 for getting the DC and SP transferred.
   Hazarika revealed that the deal was fixed at Rs.400,000
   

7  AJIT BHUYAN SHIFTED TO CIVIL HOSPITAL		  [S:14-SEP-97]
   -------------------------------------
   
   Following  the  Supreme  Court's  directive  the  editor  of  Asomiya
   Pratidin  and  Sadin,  Mr  Ajit  Bhuyan  was  brought from Majuli and
   admitted to the Jorhat Civil Hospital at 11 am on September 13.    Mr
   Bhuyan is  stated to be suffering from various illness.  Security was
   tightened and no was allowed to meet Mr Bhuyan.  His lawyers  alleged
   that they  were not allowed to meet him.  Family sources of Mr Bhuyan
   alleged that he is  not  being  given  the  diet  prescribed  by  his
   doctors.   The  Supreme  Court had earlier set aside the Gauhati High
   Court's order granting parole to Mr Bhuyan.
   
   Five  persons  deposed  before the one-man commission of inquiry into
   Sanjoy Ghose's death.  The Commissioner of Upper Assam  also  visited
   Majuli in this connection on September 12.

8  HIGH DRAMA BY SECURITY OFFICER IN JORHAT		  [S:14-SEP-97]
   ----------------------------------------
   
   The  personal  security officer of a DSP created a tense situation at
   Kachari Maindam in Jorhat for two hours in the afternoon of September
   13.  In a scene of high drama that seemed to come live right  from  a
   Hindi  blockbuster,  the  cop fired several shots in the air shouting
   for redressal  of  his  grievances  and  stood  menacingly  with  his
   carbine.   A  large  crowd gathered to witness the exciting scene but
   none dared to go near the cop to calm him.
   
   The Jorhat SP approached the disgruntled man alone and persuaded  him
   to put  down  the  carbine  to  end the tense situation.  When the SP
   assured him of fair play, the  cop  took  out  the  magazine  of  the
   carbine and  surrendered  quietly.    People applauded the SP for his
   courage and handling the situation tactfully.

9  HIGH STANDARD ACHIEVED IN ROCK CLIMBING	         [AT:14-SEP-97]
   ---------------------------------------
  
   Babita Goswami had successfully completed the  advance  course  under
   the Himalayan  Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling.  Babita achieved
   high  average  standard  in  rock  climbing,  snow  and   ice   craft
   techniques.  She scaled Chogyal Peak during the course.

______________________________[Mozz-BG]_________________________________
Compiled from newspaper and agency reports for private circulation only.
      [S=Sentinel, AT=Assam Tribune, Agencies = UNI, PTI, PIB]
              http://www.cyberspace.org/~mozz/aol.html  
  http://piglet.uccs.edu/~kalita/assam/news/news-from-assam-index.html
________________________________________________________________________