Gogoi, governor face the music
Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi and Governor J.B. Patnaik cut the cake at Raj Bhawan on January 26
Guwahati, Feb 18 : Three weeks after Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi and Governor J.B. Patnaik sliced a cake with the Tricolour painted on it as part of Republic Day celebrations, a court today ordered a CID inquiry into the incident.
The order came following a complaint filed by senior high court advocate H.R.A. Choudhury on February 12, the hearing for which took place on Monday.
After going through the complaint petition and documents filed by Choudhury, the chief judicial magistrate, Kamrup, R. Phukan, said it was a “cognizable offence” and hence a “thorough investigation” was necessary to be conducted by an agency having the necessary skill and expertise.
Phukan directed the officer-in-charge, CID police station, to register a case, investigate and submit the final findings at an early date.
Both Raj Bhavan and Gogoi, however, have already denied dishonoring the national flag.
Raj Bhavan had clarified that a cardboard had been used to hold the cake and the Tricolour was painted on the silver foil covering the cardboard, which was not meant to be cut.
The clarification came a day after Choudhury had filed the case against Gogoi, his wife Dolly Gogoi, chief secretary P.C. Sharma and senior police official Dilip Borah, excluding Governor Patnaik.
The probe order came on a day when the Opposition AGP dared Gogoi to drop seven of his ministers who, according a report published in a national magazine, were named by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that probed an alleged politician-militant nexus that was siphoning off funds in North Cachar Hills.
Rockybul Hussain, Khorsing Ingty, Akon Bora, Chandan Brahma, Gautam Roy, Ajanta Neog and Himanta Biswa Sarma are those named by the magazine. The seven, however, were not chargesheeted by the investigating agency.
AGP president Chandramohan Patowary this afternoon challenged Gogoi to drop the ministers and start proceedings against those already arrested, besides appealing to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to direct the NIA to file a supplementary chargesheet against those named in its report.
An amount of Rs 1,000 crore has reportedly been siphoned off from the council between 2005 and mid-2009. The report had also named former Governor Ajai Singh and his aide-de-camp S. Jagannathan who is the incumbent North Cachar Hills deputy commissioner.
Copies of the report naming the ministers, among others, were distributed by the AGP office today to reporters.
Ministers Hussain and Neog have denied any role in the scam, asserting that they have no role to play in matters of council funds.
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