To

The Hon’ble President of India

New Delhi

Sub: Seeking Dismissal of Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and three of
his cabinet colleagues for their involvement in Rs. 1000 core NC Hills scam. And
also prayer for enquiry into the allegation of misappropriation of public money in
the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council in view of recent CAG report.

Dear Manmohan Singhji,

With due regard and honour, we, the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, Assam
humbly submit the following issues seeking your urgent attention. We would also
like to remind you before we proceed to highlight our demands and issue that your
party is repeatedly arguing the cause of a corruption free India which was so dear
to the political ideals of the country’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
However, we strongly believe that corruption by the Indian political class along
with the bureaucrats is the greatest threat the country is facing today and helping
the country to reach a stage no return.
1. The district of North Cachar Hills is governed under the Sixth Schedule of the
Constitution of India. As per the provision laid down in the Schedule, an autonomous
council in the name of Dima Hasao Autonomous Council has been functioning in the
concerned district since independence. The will behind creating such autonomous region,
as could be evidenced from the Constituent Assembly debate, was to bring this extremely
backward and tribal inhabited area at par with the mainstream by protecting their unique
cultural and social practices. The provision therefore was also made for rule by an elected
body to be voted by the citizens of the district.
2. In the year 1993 the North Cachar Hills district witnessed the birth of the first militant
organization and this had brought a new dimension to the politics of this tiny hills district.
3. That since 1993 there has been a close nexus between politicians and various militant
groups in North Cachar Hills district. One can have a fair idea of such nexus from the
evidences collected by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
4. That while all this along other illegal activities of the militant organization were
continuing unabated, the Govt. of Assam, on 20.06.2008 issues an notification setting up
one man Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice (Retd) R K Manisena Singh.
Evidently the terms of reference limited the scope of inquiry only to a period during
which Autonomous State Demand Committee was in power whereas the politician-
 militant nexus in North Cachar dates back to the early nineties. This fact itself point
towards an oblique motive on the part of the government.
5. That the subsequent events raises further question about the real intent of the government
for instituting the commission. Justice (Rtd) R K Manisena Singh by a letter dtd 14.7.08
addressed to the Principal Secretary, Home and Political Department sought additional
power under subsection 2,3,4 & 5 of section 5 of the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952
for making effective inquiry. The government however did not accede to such request.
The Commission by another letter dtd. 21.7.08 sought power under section 5(A) of the
Act for utilization of services of any officer or investigating agency but in this case also
the government did not reply.

In his report Justice (Rtd) R K Manisena Singh while referring to these two letters
candidly admitted that due to non-conferring of such power the inquiry was substantially
affected.
6. That thereafter, one contractor viz. Phaijendra Hojai was arrested while on his way to
handover one crore rupees to DHD (J). His arrest led to unfolding of series of events
which brought to light vicious nexus of political leaders, bureaucrats, contractors and
militants in siphoning off public money. At this juncture, NIA took over the probe into
the criminal aspect of the matter and arrested a number of persons including one Mr. R H
khan, alleged kingpin of the scam involving not less than thousand crore. The NIA also
interrogated a large number of persons. However, the NIA has neither accused nor
interrogated two persons who seem to have vital roles in the affairs leading to the scam.

7. One of them is Mr Anil Kumar Baruah who was the Deputy Commissioner of the district
council from 2004 to 2009 and also Principal Secretary in the corresponding period, was
neither made accused nor interrogated. Admittedly, it was at his behest R.H. Khan was
made Liaison Officer of the council. It was also alleged that said Sri Khan’s spectacular
rise in service career was at Mr. Baruah’s behest.
8. Another person is Imdad Ali whose name appears in both Justice Manisena Commisison
Report as well as in the evidence of large number of witness.
9. That in the meantime, the reports have been published in local dailies of Assam as well as
in national weekly called ‘the Week’ about the involvement of several senior ministers of
the present congress government of Assam in the multi-corer scam. Notwithstanding the
said reports, it can be reasonably presumed that such collusion as have been witnessed in
North Cachar Hills and subsequent misappropriation of public money can not take place
without the complicity of the highest level in the government.
10. That in the meantime, the Assam government handed over investigation of
misappropriation part of the scam in respect of 7 departments to the Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI). Not surprisingly the government did not bring other departments of
the council within the purview of the investigation of the CBI.
11. Allegedly Mr. R H Khan is the kingpin of misappropriation of funds in these 7
departments which is under the investigation of the CBI. It is to be noted that Mr. R H
Khan was the liaison officer of the district who supervised the transfer of funds from the
state to the autonomous council. Further Mr. Khan who was a CDPO who was illegally
promoted to the position of Joint Director of Social Welfare apart from the head of all the
CDPOs of the district. This fact itself holds appropriateness of widening the ambit of the
probe thus bringing in all the departments functioning under the autonomous council.
When CBI conducted an enquiry into fund mis-appropriation issue an amount of Rs.
13,45,85000/- was recovered from the house of brother in law apart from recovery of
Rs.20 core approximately from a fraud bank account of Mr. Khan. This might be first in
the history of the Indian states of recovery of such a huge amount from a state
government official. The media now reports how the state government has given special
treatment to Mr. Khan who is inside the jail.

12. Besides this one individual (Mr. Anil Kumar Baruah) was in charge of both the position
of the Deputy Commissioner and the Principal Secretary from the year 2004 to 2009, viz.
while diversion of funds to militant coffer and massive misappropriation was taking
place. For a single person to remain in two apex positions for such a longtime amounts to
violation of the administrative propriety of checks and balance. Such could not have
happen without the complicity at the highest echelons in the state administration.
13. That as any other government unit, the accounts of North Cachar autonomous council
are liable to be duly audited. However, the accounts of the concerned district allegedly
have not been audited since the year 1995. This is glaring example of administrative
laxity not free from malicious intent of concealing massive misappropriation of funds.
Such gross negligence could not be possible without complicity the on part of the
government.
14. That ever since the scam in the Dima Hasao district surfaced; there has been demand for
thorough probe by all sections. However, the state government has refused to probe the
matter. As mentioned above it has rather instituted an enquiry commission with limited
mandate/ terms of reference and restricted only to the period during which the ASDC was
in power. The CBI enquiry in the five departments was ordered only at the interference of
Ministry of Home Affairs.
15. That the way the government is conducting itself in the entire matter has created
apprehension in the mind of the general public about real intent of the government. Over
the years a huge amount of public money meant for poor people of this backward district
was looted by this nexus of politician, contractors, bureaucrats and militants. Now there
is an apparent attempt to subvert the entire probe. The recent incident of filling false
affidavit to the Hon’ble High Court by the state government relating to CBI inquiry into
alleged misappropriation of Rs. 12 crore meant for plantation along the express highway
in the Dima Hasao district. This is clear evidence of government motive of putting the
scam under the carpet.
16. A recent report submitted by CAG reveals that the Assam Government had
released Rs 151.4011 crore to the NCHAC (which was more than the State
budgetary allocation for the Council) between 2007-08 and 2009-10, but the amount
received by the NCHAC was shown as Rs 424.0434 crore, the difference being Rs
272.8413 crore. If additional funds are to be released to the district council,
supplementary demands have to be passed by the State Assembly. This was not
done at any stage. The Council also failed to submit documents to the CAG with
regard to the release of additional funds by the State government. We believe that if
the financial swindle in all the 30 departments in NCHAC were to be properly
investigated, the total amount involved would be well above Rs 1,000 crore.

That the CAG report seriously questiones and raised doubt over the practice
of the governance of the present Assam government can be found in the
following excerpts from the CAG report:
“There was nothing on record to show whether any supplementary grant was
provided or any re-appropriation was made. Reasons for release of excess fund by the
state government over the budget provisions were not available on records. Release of
excess fund by the govt. over the budget provisions sought with the risk of mis-
utilisation/misappropriation of the fund, (Special CAG report on NC hills p. 9).

We would also like to draw your attention to the fact the CAG has repeatedly mentions
how the Assam government has refused to share records despite request made it. Similar
complaint was also made by the Monisena Commission of the refusal of the Assam
government to share relevant official records.

The KMSS stand is vindicated by the editorial of the The Sentinel (6th December, 2010)
and it says “And if a Union minister like A Raja is removed for swindles, why should
there be different standards in the case of Assam?” Nobody will deny that the NC Hill
scam is one of the greatest scam involving an Indian state. We hope you will pay
urgent attention to this issue, institute a CBI enquiry into this subject and punish
the guilty at the earliest.

The KMSS demands that the present enquiry should be taken up the Central government
as the state government has lost its credibility to independently conduct such an enquiry.

Our Demands are:

1. That the Central Government should institute an enquiry into the fund mis-
appropriation involving all the departments of NC Hills since 2001.
2. The Assam Chief Minister and three of his cabinet colleagues Shri Himanta
Biswa Sarma, Shri Gautam Roy, Shri Kharsing Ingti should be asked to resign
immediately. They should be prosecuted along with former governor of Assam
Lt. General Mr. Ajay Singh.
3. We also demand that the Autonomous District Council of Karbi Anglong should
be also brought under this inquiry.

Thanking you

(General Secretary) (President)

Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, Assam

Copy to
1. Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson, UPA, New Delhi.

2. Mr. P. Chidambaram, Union Home Minister, New Delhi