Ex-GNLA chief running illegal tax network
TURA: Garo Hills police have arrested over a dozen members belonging to an organisation headed by former Chairman of the outlawed GNLA, Champion R Sangma, for widespread illegal tax collection from traders.
Following public complaints about the extortion drive against non-tribal traders, South Garo Hills police, on Friday, raided Jadigittim market, the largest weekly market in the coal belt region of Nangalbibra town, and caught thirteen members of the A’chik Holistic Awakening Movement (AHAM) engaged in collection of illegal tax.
The members of the group were found issuing temporary licenses to non- tribal traders under its self proclaimed tax network for a fee of five hundred rupees each. Dubbed by AHAM as the ‘Non-Tribal Registration Receipt”, traders had to obtain this illegal document to be allowed to do business inside the region.
Police sources reveal that hundreds of traders had already fallen prey to this extortion racket in just the South Garo Hills region alone and reports of similar has begun to surface.
With the AHAM organization having opened dozens of units all across Garo Hills and West Khasi Hills region, going as far as neighbouring Goalpara district of Assam, police believe the group is attempting to run a parallel tax network to that of the government.
The organization which was floated by Champion Sangma after his bail from prison has also been accused, in the recent past, of alleged harassment of the truckers ferrying boulders from Bhutan to Bangladesh through the Garo Hills.