Police Constable Arrested In ONGC Kidnapping Case

In a significant development, a constable of 25 APBN, one Basanta Boragohain, was apprehended by Assam police in connection with the abduction of three ONGC employees earlier this week.

Boragohain, who was in hiding, was arrested from Sadiya on Monday. He was in-charge of security of the ONGC rig site at Lakwa field in Sivasagar on the day of the abduction.

It is alleged that Borgohain was involved in aiding ULFA-I in abducting the ONGC employees.

On Friday, a joint operation was carried out by Indian army personnel, Assam Rifles, and police to rescue the ONGC captives – Mohini Mohan Gogoi, Alakesh Saikia and Ritul Saikia. They exchanged fire intermittently through the night before rescuing two of the captives.

The third employee, Ritul Saikia, however remains missing. ULFA-I, in a statement, said that all three employees were handed over to villagers of Totokchingnyu in Nagaland amidst concerns for their safety. It reiterated that Ritul Saikia may have been killed in crossfire or the army is hiding him.

"Since the security forces have not said anything about the fate of the third person, we suspect that he was either killed or kept hidden by the security forces deliberately," the statement said.