Amzad Hussain (top) being taken to court in Guwahati on Wednesday. (Above) CBI officials carry the seized money from Hussain’s residence at Six Mile on Tuesday. Pictures by Eastern Projections

June 16: The “cash-from-garage” exposé today exploded in the face of the ruling Congress, putting chief minister Tarun Gogoi’s “clean” governance under the scanner of both the public and the Opposition, just a few months ahead of the Assembly elections next year.

The Opposition sharpened its knives in anticipation of a political kill, literally cashing in on CBI’s recovery of Rs 13.45 crore from the house of a relative of a key accused in the case of alleged funds diversion from the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council to the militant DHD-J.

Sleuths of the CBI yesterday recovered Rs 13,45,98,000 from the Six Mile residence of Amzad Hussain, a junior engineer with the zila parishad in Dhubri.

The amount was kept in gunny bags inside a secret chamber built between two walls of the garage at Hussain’s residence. Some of the currency bundles had stamps of Haflong branches of two nationalised banks, which suggest that these were withdrawn from the NC Hills (now Dima Hasao) district headquarters town.

Hussain is the brother-in-law of R.H. Khan, a key accused in the case of diversion of council funds to the militant DHD (J), which was earlier probed by the National Investigation Agency. Khan is currently in judicial custody.

While the government maintained a studied silence, the Opposition went ballistic over the recovery of the cash, daring the chief minister to release the property list of his ministerial colleagues and allow the CBI to interrogate the public servants whose names have been linked to the scam.

The reinvigorated Opposition — mainly the AGP and BJP — pounced on the issue and decided to raise it in the ensuing Assembly session from July 12 to 16.

AGP president Chandramohan Patowary asked Gogoi to display “courage” by recommending widening of the CBI probe into the alleged Rs 1,000 crore scam in Dima Hasao district in accordance with the recommendations of the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Patowary asked the chief minister to release the property list of his ministerial colleagues and allow the CBI to interrogate the public servants, including ministers.

“The chief minister never tires of talking about development and transparency. Let him prove it by declaring the property list and not restricting the CBI probe to NC Hills. We will move the Centre this month with these demands and also take the issue to the people to expose how crores of development funds are kept in a private garage of lower-level officials,” Patowary said.

BJP president Ranjit Dutta, too, went hammer and tongs at the Gogoi government, seeking its resignation and bringing all public servants under the CBI scanner.

CBI had registered a case in connection with the financial anomalies on May 13 last and started investigations into the case. The NIA, in its chargesheet filed in court, had also prayed for a CBI inquiry into allegations of financial anomalies.

Besides Hussain, the CBI also arrested a casual employee of social welfare department of North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council, Amjad Hussain alias Amjad Ali, a nephew of the engineer.

Both the arrested were produced in the court of special judge, CBI, Adhir Kumar Das, in Guwahati today. The duo were remanded in five days’ CBI custody.

The court has asked the investigating agency to furnish the case diary on June 21 when the bail pleas of the accused will also be considered.