In 1999, Pratul Deb, a retired official of the UK Education Service returned to his ancestral home in the remote village of Katlicherra in Hailakandi district, south Assam, leaving his immediate family in Britain. He had a deep desire to start an enterprise of his own besides engaging himself in post-retirement social activities despite a weak heart.
Mr Deb did not realise that his dreams would remain unfulfilled as his growing popularity in the area earned him some powerful enemies especially after he joined the BJP and contested the 2001 Assembly polls.Although he was defeated in the election by his Congress rival and brother-in-law Gautam Roy, who is now the social welfare minister of Assam, Mr Deb had proved that he was prepared for a long race in the political field. In the meantime, he was doing well in the bamboo export business he had started in the area posing a threat to other established bamboo traders there.
On 17 March, 2004 the NRI vanished with his assistant Sadhan Nath while they were on their way to Mizoram from the Bhaicherra area in Hailakandi on a business trip. His driver came back with news of his abduction and an extortion note from the abductors demanding Rs 40 lakh from the NRI family.It sent wrong signals to NRIs interested in taking active part in the regions development. The media was rife with speculation about the possible involvement of Mr Debs political and business rivals while the police believed that the Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF) was behind it as the BNLF had a base in the forests along the Assam-Mizoram boundary. The state police had miserably failed to make any headway, sending another wrong signal about the law and order situation in Assam.
The NRIs UK-based daughter, Sipra Deb, met Union home minister Shivraj Patil and Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi early this year urging that the Assam police work effectively in the case. Dr Deb had alleged before the media here that police were probably under pressure from some powerful quarters which might even include her uncle Gautam Roy, the minister, not to investigate aggressively. Her remarks echoed allegations levelled by the state BJP. Mr Roy, however, remained unfazed, denying that he had any role in harming the NRI who, he said, was not a threat to his political future.The case was finally sent to the Central Bureau of Investigation after a directive of Guwahati High Court which responded to a PIL filed by an NGO demanding a probe by a central investigating agency since the Assam police had failed. The CBI took up the case about a few months ago even as the Assam police prepared to close it as another insurgency-related, unresolved case.
A CBI team made progress after confessions by two detained Chakma tribals early this month and exhumed two skeletons which are widely believed to be the remains of Mr Deb and Mr Nath from inside a forest at Boncherra near the Assam-Mizoram border. The CBI team dug up two skulls, a few bones, a pacemaker, a pair of rubber sandals and some clothes. The CBI team took them to New Delhi for forensic tests to ascertain whether they belonged to the kidnapped men. The recovery of the pacemaker is significant since the 65-year-old Mr Deb was a cardiac patient and on a pacemaker.His daughter said the number imprinted on the recovered pacemaker tallied with the one implanted in his father. The BJP, which has been claiming that Mr Deb drew the ire of his business and political rivals because of his growing popularity in the area and rapid progress in the bamboo business which was under the control of Mr Roys family, has demanded the ministers resignation on moral grounds till the CBI completes its investigation.
The question being asked in Assam is whether the CBI will be able to solve the mystery and answer the questions which remain in the minds of Mr Debs family and friends. Another critical question arises: if the remains are those of Mr Deb, then why was he killed and who was involved?(The author is the The Statesmans Guwahati-based Special Representative.)
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