Guwahati: Assam police have claimed to have arrested the alleged mastermind behind the abduction of general manger of National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC), AK Agarwal who has still remained untraced since September 21 last much to the worry of his family and the NHPC orgaisation.
A joint team of Assam Police and Arunachal Police on Sunday night arrested the alleged mastermind of the kidnapping incident, Anil Tamang from Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. Tamang is a contractor with the NHPC and hails from Tawang where the NHPC is executing hydroelectricity project.
Police sources earlier claimed that said the NHPC official was abducted for money with the help of anti-talk faction of the Bodo tribe insurgent group National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) led by Sangbijit. So far police have arrested 12 persons in connection with the abduction.
Assam’s Director General of Police, Jayanto Narayan Choudhury said here that police were adopting a cautious approach and “all out operation” was not being carried out to ensure safety of the NHPC official who is in the captivity of militants.
The DGP said that the abductors have served a ransom demand to the family of the NHPC official.
Agarwal was kidnapped on September 21 last from the Assam-Arunachal border when he was travelling from Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh to Tezpur in Assam.
Fifty six-year-old Agarwal is a resident of Delhi and was in Tawang to oversee the works of a hydroelectric project being executed there. He was traveling without any PSO at the time of the abduction.
Meanwhile, Army, Assam Police and paramilitary forces were carrying out joint search operations in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh areas to trace the official.