Abhijit Chaliha
Guwahati, Sept 13: Guwahati Police on Sunday arrested the prime accused in a case related to the forging of the signature of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. The accused - Imran Shah Choudhury - was arrested in Delhi by a police team from Guwahati and "is in the process of being brought back". He, and another accused - Rajib Kalita - had fled from Assam to Delhi after learning an FIR had been filed. "Imran Shah Choudhury had claimed it was very easy for him to get them (four others) a contract in the PHE (public health engineering) department directly via the Chief Minister's Office... he would take three per cent as commission," Assam Police said in a statement. The police said Choudhury gave the four men forged papers that they submitted to the Chief Engineer of the PHE department. Police further said Imran Choudhury created the forged documents with the help of three people - Dilip Das, Anupam Choudhury and Prakash Basumatary. The four scanned Dr. Sarma's actual signature to create the forged document in the shop of a fifth person - Naba Roy. All but two of the suspects have been arrested. "Two accused - Anupam Choudhury and Prakash Basumatary - are absconding. Searches are ongoing," the police said. The investigation began after an FIR was lodged by the Chief Minister's Office, stating that "a note had been given to the Chief Engineer (PHE, Water) - for work to be allotted in the name of Lohit Construction - with the forged signature of the Chief Minister. Subsequently a case was registered at the Dispur Police Station. The remarkably rapid investigation into the Chief Minister's forged signature bore fruit in a few hours, after police from Guwahati and Sibsagar picked up the four persons - Binit Poddar, Dipjyoti Dutta, Jaimini Mohan, Pankaj Gogoi - connected to Lohit Construction. Interrogations revealed they met Choudhury via Mohan's brother-in-law. Police said Poddar and Dutta managed to collect ₹ 9 lakhs from friends and family, and delivered the money to Chaudhary, who gave them the forged papers.
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