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Autonomous council chief remanded to police custody

Special Correspondent

GUWAHATI: The arrested chief executive member of the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC), Mohit Hojai, and R.H. Khan, an official of the Social Welfare Department, were remanded to police custody for two days by the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate (Kamrup-Metropolitan) here on Sunday.

Mr. Hojai and Mr. Khan were produced in the court under heavy security late in the afternoon. They were arrested by Special Task Force commandos in Haflong, the district headquarters town, on Saturday for allegedly paying Rs. 1 crore from the council’s exchequer towards an arms purchase deal by the militant outfit Dima Halam Daogah(Jewel faction).

Mr. Hojai told journalists on the court premises that his arrest was a “political conspiracy.”

The Bhartiya Janata Party flayed the State government’s recommendation that the Governor suspend the council following the arrest of Mr. Hojai. BJP leader and an executive member of the tribal council Kulendu Daulagupu said the suspension of the elected body amounted to disrespecting the people’s mandate. He cautioned that such an action would only fuel the feeling of negligence among the people of the hill district.

The death toll in the extremist violence has gone up to 26, with suspected militants killing a person of the Zeme Naga tribe at Jorai Basti on Sunday.

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