Guwahati, Feb. 6: The spectre of “secret killings” in Assam during the AGP’s last term in office has returned to haunt former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta just before the acid test of his political resurgence, the Assembly elections.

The one-man inquiry commission of retired Supreme Court judge K.N. Saikia today began hearing government witnesses in connection with an attempt on the life of Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) leader Ananta Kalita by “secret killers” in 1999.

Several relatives of Ulfa members were the victims of secret killings, described so because the perpetrators were never caught. These incidents contributed to the ouster of the erstwhile Mahanta government.

The former chief minister, who is no longer with the AGP, was summoned to the hearing but did not turn up. His counsel moved a petition on Mahanta’s behalf, seeking more time to make a personal appearance.

Former director-general of police P.V. Sumant and three more police officials appeared before the commission.

Justice Saikia fixed February 17, 18 and 20 as the dates for the next three hearings and asked all the witnesses to submit their affidavits on or before February 15.

The abortive attempt to murder Kalita had created a sensation and embarrassed the government and the police. Dispur entrusted Saikia with the probe after rejecting the J.N. Sarma Commission’s report on the so-called secret killings. The Sarma Commission had given Mahanta a clean chit.

The attempt on Kalita’s life was initially not in the list of cases that were to be probed by the Saikia Commission. The government included it in the list only after several organisations raised the demand. The commission is now probing eight incidents ? 11 people were killed ?between August 1998 and 2001. Kalita is the only one to have survived the attacks.

On September 16, 1999, unidentified men kidnapped Kalita from his house at Kalitapara, near Hajo in Kamrup district. He was reportedly assaulted before being taken away in a vehicle. Three days later, the AJYCP leader surfaced at the Maligaon office of his organisation with serious bullet injuries. Kalita claimed the police and surrendered Ulfa members confined him to the 10th Assam Police Battalion base in Guwahati for two days, during which he was tortured and interrogated about Ulfa activities.

On September 18, he was allegedly taken to Jorabat police station in a vehicle. He said his captors later took him to a nearby hill, where one of the “drunk armed men” shot him in the face with a pistol and pushed him down the slope. Kalita said he regained consciousness around 4 am the next day and crawled his way to the nearby road, from where somebody took him to the AJYCP office in Maligaon. A bullet had perforated his cheeks.