Guwahati, May 5: Less than a week after the banned Ulfa named some senior AGP leaders as co-conspirators in the ?secret killings? between 1996 and 2001, party president Brindaban Goswami appeared before the Justice K.N. Saikia Commission for his first deposition in the inquiry into the unsolved murders.

Goswami had been summoned specifically to share any information he might have on two kidnappings and murders ? of Rajesh Mishra and Rajiv Koch ? in Tezpur on September 28, 1999. The AGP chief was an MLA from Tezpur at the time of the incident, just as he is now.

Apart from being quizzed on the twin murders, Goswami was asked to give his views on the Assam Movement, the signing of the 1985 Assam Accord and the circumstances leading to the formation of Ulfa.

?The commission feels the post-1979 (the year of Ulfa?s birth) scenario needs to be taken into account to get to the bottom of the cases. All these issues are inter-linked,? a source said.

Another AGP leader, Padma Hazarika, had been summoned but the deposition did not take place.

Goswami said he made his submissions in support of an affidavit that he had filed earlier. ?I said what I needed to say to help the commission get to the bottom of the sensitive issue. I will continue to co-ope-rate with the commission and share all that I know as well as my observations on various issues. I cannot tell you anything beyond that because the matter is sub-judice.?

Official sources said the AGP chief would be summoned again because his deposition remained incomplete.

The AGP has all along been trying to deflect any blame for the secret killings to Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, who was the chief minister when the party was in power but has since become a pariah. Mahanta, who now leads the AGP (Pragatisheel), deposed before the Justice Saikia panel for the first time on April 26.

On May 1, the Ulfa mouthpiece Freedom said some AGP bigwigs were equally to blame for the mysterious attacks in which family members of several of its leaders died.

The list of names includes Chandra Mohan Patowary, Pradip Hazarika, Padma Hazarika, Hitendra Nath Goswami, Phani Bhusan Choudhury and Dilip Saikia Sonowal.

Defending himself, Sonowal today said he was the first one to raise the subject of unsolved murders in the Assembly as a member of the then ruling party. ?One just has to see the records of Assembly proceedings to know what I have said or what my views have been on the issue.?

Among those who have been interrogated by the inquiry commission ? set up in August 2005 ? are Apurba Jiwan Baruah, who was the Nalbari police chief when four family members of Ulfa publicity secretary Mithinga Daimary were killed in Barama on August 12, 1998. The commission?s term has been extended till August.