Premature to say more politicians involved in Assam scam: CBI

Guwahati/Shillong, July 14 : The CBI Wednesday said it was too premature to claim involvement of more politicians in the multimillion rupee financial scam involving swindling of government funds in Assam's North Cachar Hills district.

"The investigation is on in full-swing. It's too premature to say whether there are other politicians involved in the case," a senior Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official told IANS in Meghalaya state capital Shillong.

Mohit Hojai of the Autonomous State Demand Committee is the only politician now arrested on charges of colluding with militants in siphoning funds, while a bureaucrat, R.H. Khan, is the lone government official in prison on the same charge.

A CBI team from Shillong is involved in the investigations.

The politician-militant-bureaucrat-contractor nexus involving government funds siphoned off in the North Cachar Hills district was unravelled by the National Investigating Agency (NIA) last year.

The NIA was entrusted by the central government in June 2009 to probe a criminal case after Assam Police arrested two Dima Halim Daogah (DHD-J) rebels in April with Rs.1 crore cash and weapons.

The case was later handed over to the CBI.

The two arrested rebels, Phojendra Hojai and Babul Kemprai, told police the cash was handed over to them by Mohit Hojai, the then chief executive member of the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC).

The NIA, in its final chargesheet, said elected members of the NCHAC helped the outlawed Jewel Garlosa faction of the DHD-J to siphon government funds.

Last month, CBI sleuths seized Rs.13.05 crore in cash stacked in sacks and boxes from the house of a relative of a scam-accused official in Guwahati.

"It may take us another 10 months to complete the entire probe," the CBI official said.

Opposition political parties in Assam are making serious charges of ministers being involved in the scam.

"Let me tell you that if any ministers are found involved we shall take action as per law," Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi told IANS.