Police arrest seven people for forging signature of Assam CM to get government contract

According to the Assam police, on Sept 8 an FIR was received from the Chief Minister Office (CMO) which stated that a note had been given to Chief Engineer (PHE) Water, Assam for work to be allotted in the name of Lohit Construction, with a forged signature of the Assam Chief Minister.

Accordingly a case was registered in Dispur police station and investigated. Within a few hours Guwahati police and Sivasagar district police picked up 4 persons connected to Lohit Construction and they were thoroughly examined and later they were arrested.

The arrested four people were identified as Binit Poddar, Dipjyoti Dutta, Jaimini Mohan and Pankaj Gogoi.

During interrogation they revealed that they had come in contact with one Imran Sha Chaudhary through the brother-in-law of Jaimini Mohan.

The said Imran Sha Chaudhary, kingpin of the crime, claimed that it was very easy for him to get them a contract in PHE Dept through the CMO directly, but he would take 3 percent as commission. Imran Sha Chaudhary assured them of getting them two contracts worth Rs 3.16 crore, and thus demanded Rs 9 lakh as commission.

Binit Poddar and Dipjyoti Dutta managed to collect Rs 9 lakh from friends and family and delivered it to Imran Sha Chaudhary who gave them the forged paper, which they finally submitted to the Chief Engineer, PHE department.

Police investigation revealed that Imran Sha Chaudhary and one Rajib Kalita escaped to Delhi immediately after they came to know about the FIR.

A team of Guwahati police went immediately to New Delhi and tracked the accused persons, who were regularly changing their locations to escape from the police.

Imran Sha Chaudhary created the forged document with the help of three other persons namely Dilip Das alias Rubu from Khanapara area in Guwahati, Anupam Chaudhary from Hengrabari area and Prakash Basumatary from Kajolgaon area.

They scanned an actual signature of the Assam CM to create the forged document in the shop of one Naba Roy.

They gave the forged document to Imran Sha Chaudhary and received 1 percent commission i.e Rs 3 Lakh. Rs 1 lakh each was distributed among Dilip Das alias Rubu, Anupam Chaudhary and Prakash Basumatary.  On September 11, Rajib Kalita was arrested by City Police at LGBI airport on arrival from Delhi. Dilip Das alias Rubu was arrested by City Police on the same day and examined thoroughly. On September 12, Imran Sha Chaudhary was arrested by the the City Police team in New Delhi with the cooperation of Delhi Police. He is in the process of being brought to Guwahati.

The shop owner Naba Roy was also picked up by the police on Monday.

Two accused persons Anupam Chaudhary and Prakash Basumatary are absconding and search operations are on.