Two kidnapped officials including CCI official found dead in Assam

GUWAHATI: The two top officials who were kidnapped on Sunday were found dead today, official sources said. Kailash Jha, abducted manager of Cement Corporation of India (CCI), was killed and his body recovered from deep inside a forest in Karbi Anglong today, officials said. The body of Public Works Department (PWD) junior engineer Ajay Kumar Deka kidnapped on Saturday night, was recovered from Assam’s main city Guwahati this morning. Deka was kidnapped from Borbari under Dispur police station. According to Deka’s wife, Deka left for Chandmari on Saturday with his car (AS-O1-Z-8989), but did not return. His car was found abandoned at Six Mile in the city.

Meanwhile, body of Jha, the mines manager of CCI was found lying inside a densely forested area near Bhalujan in Karbi Anglong. Jha and 10 more people, including security officer Madan Kumar Bora, were kidnapped by heavily armed militants of the outlawed Karbi Longri North Cachar Liberation Front (KLNLF) late Sunday from nearby Bokajan, about 280 km east of Guwahati.

“A police team early Monday found Jha’s body lying inside a densely forested area near Bhalujan in Karbi Anglong,” senior police official B Purkayastha said. “We suspect Jha died of a heart attack unable to withstand the pressure of being made to walk for a long stretch through jungles by his abductors. There was no visible injury mark and now we have sent the body for an autopsy,” Purkayastha was qouted by media from Bokajan.

Barring two people, the rebels released eight of the hostages early Monday, including Bora.“A driver and a handyman working with a contractor for the CCI are still missing and we believe they are in the custody of the militants,’ the official said.Police and paramilitary forces were combing the forest in an effort to rescue the two hostages. The tribal militants hoodwinked CCI’s security by masquerading as paramilitary troopers with the rebel group wearing uniforms of the Border Security Force.‘The abductors literally overpowered the CCI team coming from a work site with the security guards mistaking them as paramilitary troopers,’ another police official said.

The death of the CCI official comes four days after abducted Food Corporation of India executive director P.C. Ram was killed in crossfire. Militants of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) kidnapped Ram April 17 from Guwahati.
The KNLF and the ULFA are believed to have close ties and operate in tandem in parts of eastern Assam.