Guwahati, May 11: Dispur will order a CBI probe into the alleged abduction of Prasanna Turung, working president of the Tirap Autonomous District Council Demand Committee, and his wife Komai on April 8.

The president of the All Assam Man (Tai-speaking) Students’ Union, Pallav Shyam Wailung, told the media today that chief minister Tarun Gogoi had assured him and other leaders of a CBI inquiry. The assurance came after several tribal organisations jointly petitioned him, demanding that the case be handed to the CBI to find out the couple’s whereabouts.

The organisations that submitted the memorandum include the All Assam Tribal Sangha, All Assam Deori Students’ Union and the Tirap Tribal Women’s Welfare Association.

The organisations gave the government 36 hours to trace the couple, failing which they threatened to intensify their agitation.

“Gogoi said he had already made up his mind to hand over the case to the CBI as the police have failed to find Turung and his wife,” Wailung said.

“We suspect political conspiracy behind their disappearance,” Akshay Kumar Rajkhowa, general secretary of the state unit of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), said.

He also criticised the police for an allegedly ineffective investigation.

Turung is the joint secretary of the NCP’s state committee and his wife is the general secretary of the party’s women’s wing.

“We have been struggling for the rights of the tribals for the past 12 years demanding autonomy under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. Turung could have been targeted because he had played a crucial role in spreading awareness among the tribals of the area,” Nakul Singpho, general secretary of the Tirap Autonomous District Council Demand Committee, said.