Guwahati, Aug. 18: The CBI today filed a chargesheet against 17 persons, including the commander of Ulfa’s 709 battalion, Hira Sarania, in the P.C. Ram abduction case.
The CBI also named late Rabiram Basumatary, the driver of the FCI executive director, as one of the accused in the 60-page chargesheet filed at the court of special magistrate, Guwahati.
Rabiram is among the six accused who have died since the case was filed and hence his name is not in the list of the 17 chargesheeted for trial.
Rabiram’s brother, Dhiren, has been named a key conspirator in Ram’s abduction on April 17, 2007, from here.
All the accused have been chargesheeted under Sections 120(b) (criminal conspiracy) and 364(a) (abduction for ransom) of the IPC.
Six persons arrested earlier by Assam police in connection with the case have been acquitted by the CBI in the absence of evidence.
Initially, the police suspected that Ulfa alone was behind the abduction. But after taking over the case in November last year, the CBI disclosed that the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) was involved as well.
The NDFB’s involvement came to light following the arrest of one of its cadre, Nareshwar Basumatary. The CBI got whiff of his involvement in the case from a phone number it got from Ram’s family. A day after Ram’s abduction, Nareshwar made a call to his family in Gurgaon from his mobile and demanded Rs 21 crore. No other call was made from that number to Ram’s family again. All other calls were made by Ulfa.
The CBI in its chargesheet said the criminal conspiracy to abduct the FCI official was hatched by the NDFB at Barama in Baksa district in December 2006. The outfit, however, decided that as it was in ceasefire, it would take Ulfa’s help to carry out the negotiations. The NDFB approached Ulfa and struck a deal with Sarania to share the ransom equally.
The first attempt to kidnap Ram in February 2007 failed. He was, however, abducted on April 17 evening when he was returning to his Srinagar residence from his office in Ulubari. The NDFB abductors took him to Barama where he was handed over to the second-in-command of Ulfa’s 709 battalion, Amar Das.
He remained in Ulfa custody till his death in a crossfire between police and his captors on July 11, 2007.
