Lachit Bordoloi, the mediator who has been arrested Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Feb. 11: A Deccan employee was arrested in Guwahati today on suspicion of helping the banned Ulfa hatch a hijack plot.

A rights activist who mediated with Delhi for peace talks was also held on the charge of doubling as an adviser to militants on subversive missions.

Police said the airline’s customer care executive Sumanta Dutta, in his twenties, was arrested on the basis of statements made by an Ulfa militant caught on Saturday.

The arrested rebel, Manoj Tamuli, told interrogators that he accompanied Dutta and another Ulfa member, Akash Thapa, to New Delhi in November for a meeting with militant leader Sashadhar Choudhury.

The Deccan employee allegedly passed on to Choudhury security-sensitive information about Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport and flights taking off from there, the police said.

Deccan’s duty manager at the city airport said the airline had heard of Dutta’s arrest, but knew little else.

Asked whether the arrest meant Dutta’s credentials were not verified before he was appointed, the duty manager said the ground handling agent for Deccan was responsible for all appointments at the airport and that a thorough police verification of the candidate was mandatory to get a gate pass from the Airports Authority of India.

The crackdown on Ulfa’s network of civilian helpers continued with the detention of Lachit Bordoloi, a member of the team that was handpicked by the outfit to mediate with Delhi.

Bordoloi was returning to Guwahati from Upper Assam in a Volvo bus when a police team detained him at Moran, in Dibrugarh district, around 11am.

The detention was on the request of Guwahati police, which had raided the People’s Consultative Group member’s residence in the city yesterday and seized some items.

Tamuli named Bordoloi as one of his advisers.

Guwahati lawyer Nekibur Zaman, who represents Ulfa members in court cases, is under the scanner, too. His mobile phone was seized yesterday and he is under police watch.

A senior police officer said there could be more arrests and detentions on the basis of Tamuli’s confessions.

The Manab Adhikar Sangram Samity, of which Bordoloi is the chief adviser, gave the police 24 hours to release him without conditions or face statewide protests on February 13. The outfit said the state government was trying to derail attempts to revive Delhi’s peace process with Ulfa.

Writer Mamoni Raisom Goswami, who is credited with starting the peace process, was shocked at Bordoloi’s detention. “Do you think he could be involved in such activities?” she asked.

The People’s Consultative Group, too, backed Bordoloi. “The people of Assam know what is happening. Bordoloi’s detention reflects the fascist nature of the government. The government seems to be opposed to the peace move. The government will be responsible for any untoward situation,” the group’s spokesperson, Arup Borbora, said.