GUWAHATI, Sept 13: Assam Police have arrested the kingpin and three others for allegedly forging the signature of chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and cheating a private construction company with assurances of a government contract.
According to an official statement on Monday, an FIR (first information report) was received from the chief minister’s office on September 8 that the chief engineer (PHE-water) received a note with a forged signature of the chief minister with directions that a contract be allotted in the name of Lohit Construction.
“A case was lodged at Dispur police station. Subsequently, four persons connected to the company were picked up for questioning. During interrogation, they revealed that one Imran Shah Chaudhary, the kingpin of the crime, had assured them of two contracts worth Rs 3.16 crore in the PHE department against a commission of Rs 9 lakh (three percent of the contracts’ value),” the statement said.
Thereafter, two among the four questioned, handed over the commission amount to Chaudhary who, in turn, gave them a note with the forged signature of the chief minister, which they submitted to the chief engineer’s office.
“Police investigation revealed that Chaudhary and one Rajib Kalita escaped to New Delhi immediately after they came to know about the FIR. A Guwahati Police team thereafter rushed to New Delhi and tracked the accused persons, who were regularly changing their locations to escape from the police,” the statement said.
Chaudhary had created the forged document in a shop owned by one Naba Roy with the help of three persons – Dilip Das, Anupam Chaudhary and Prakash Basumatary.
The three persons had received Rs one lakh each as commission from Chaudhary for their help.
However, Kalita was arrested on September 11 at the LGBI Airport here on his arrival from Delhi while Dilip Das was also arrested the same day from Guwahati and examined thoroughly.
On Sunday, Chaudhary was arrested from a hotel in New Delhi by the city police team with the help of Delhi Police. He is being brought to Guwahati.
On Monday, the shop owner Naba Roy was also picked up by the police.
Search is on to arrest two other accused persons, Anupam Chaudhary and Prakash Basumatary, who are absconding.