The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had arrested the former chief executive member of North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council for his alleged involvement with the Rs 1000-crore financial scam in the hill district.
"We understand that law will follow its own course. But Hojai has in the Guwahati Central jail for two years even as the charges leveled against him have not been proved. Let the judiciary declare him guilty and punish him. But the way he is being dealt with is inhuman," ASDC's Dima Hasao district committee president Rathindra Thaosen said.
Incidentally, Hojai contested the recent assembly elections on an ASDC nominee from Haflong in Dima Hasao, but lost the polls.
In April 2009, Assam Police had arrested two DHD (Jewel) rebels and found Rs10 million in cash and a huge cache of weapons on them. During interrogation, the two militants, Phojendra Hojai and Babul Kemprai, claimed that the cash was handed over to them by Hojai.
The Centre appointed NIA in June 2009 to investigate the alleged misappropriation of crores of rupees meant for the development of NC Hills, now called Dima Hasao. The amount had reportedly gone to the DHD(J) rebels, also known as Black Widows.
Besides Hojai, R H Khan, who was the deputy director of the social welfare department, Jibangshu Paul, a contractor, DHD(J) chairman Jewel Garlossa and commander-in-chief Niranjan Hojai are among the 16 people chargesheeted by the NIA. 14 of them are in jail. The two arrested DHD-J militants are out on bail.
On October 2, 2009, the DHD(J) rebels surrendered en masse and are now living in designated camps.
In the meantime, two more persons, a student and a trader, have been abducted by suspected militants from a village in Hailakandi district. Shamim Ahmed Laskar (17), an HS student, and Safiq Uddin Laskar (24), a timber merchant, were kidnapped on Thursday, a report reaching here said on Saturday.
Police said Shamim, a resident of Sahabad Part I village in the Lala block and a student of Hailakandi Public HS School, was kidnapped on Thursday evening when he was returning home from Silchar. The kidnappers have sought a ransom of Rs 50 lakh to free him, sources said.
Safiq, a resident of Rupacherraghat in the same area, was whisked away by the kidnappers when he was on a business trip in the remote Baruncherra village near Mizoram. "Around 2 pm on Thursday, Safiq went to Baruncherra on his motor-cycle. But he didn't return. We suspect that he was kidnapped by some miscreants", said a police officer.
Assam PHE minister Gautom Roy has asked district police authorities to take urgent steps for the rescue of the duo. On Saturday morning, SP (Hailakandi) Hemanta Kumar Bhattacharjee rushed to the area and launched a combing operation with the help of police and CRPF personnel in the jungles along Assam-Mizoram boundary.
On Tuesday, suspected kidnappers whisked away Rahmat Ali (32), a trader from Dukhipur village near Singlacherra. He is yet to be rescued.