Himanta Biswa Sarma

Guwahati, Aug. 19: Gauhati High Court today directed the state government to furnish the records of two TADA cases registered against health and family welfare minister Himanta Biswa Sarma by next Wednesday.

A division bench of the high court, comprising acting Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Brojendra Prasad Katakey passed the order after hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a former BJP MP from Bihar, Sukhdeo Paswan, seeking reopening of the two cases against Sarma.

Paswan in his PIL filed on August 14 also made a prayer before the court seeking a CBI probe or an investigation by an independent agency into the matter.

He alleged that Sarma was facing TADA charges and criminal cases but used his political influence to subvert the law.

Sarma, on the other hand, filed an affidavit yesterday questioning maintainability of Paswan’s petition as a PIL.

The court fixed August 26 as the next date of hearing to decide the issue of maintainability of the PIL.

The division bench also asked Paswan to file another affidavit in reply to the one filed by Sarma. Paswan was represented by advocates A. Kumar, A.K. Nath and G. Deka, while advocate Devajit Saikia appeared for Sarma.

The two cases were registered at Chandmari police station (case number 77/1991) and Panbazar police station (case number 15/1991).

The Chandmari police station case was related to an alleged extortion bid by the minister on behalf of Ulfa when he was “caught red-handed” while collecting Rs 10 lakh as extortion money. For this offence, he was booked under TADA on March 28, 1991.

The Panbazar police station case was again related to extortion for Ulfa where Sarma allegedly collected several lakhs of rupees for the outfit from city-based businessmen.

For the offence he was booked under TADA on January 12, 1991, at Panbazar police station under Section 3, 4 of TADA, read with Section 25 (i) (a) of the Arms Act and was also remanded in police custody for 15 days.

The Panbazar police station case was also registered against him under Arms Act because police allegedly recovered a revolver and 25 rounds of ammunition, reportedly hidden by Sarma behind a kitchen at a Cotton College hostel.

The high court today asked both the police stations to submit all records of the two cases, including case diaries, by August 26.