ITANAGAR, Nov 17: Dealing a major blow to the banned militant outfit, the United Liberation Front of Asom-I or ULFA (I), the state police arrested a senior hardcore member of the outfit, a police release said on Sunday.
Self-styled commander Ranjan Bikash Borgohain @ Bikash @ Ramen was arrested by a special investigation team led by SP Navdeep Singh Brar after a month-long search operation and several raids in Delhi, Dibrugarh and Guwahati.
A resident of Moranhat in Assam’s Dibrugarh district, Borgohain was allegedly involved in extorting money from high-profile politicians from the Northeast, including Arunachal, the release said.
During interrogation, Borgohain revealed that he had earlier been arrested by the Delhi police over threat and extortion charges, and had been sent to Tihar jail. His link to the ULFA dates back to 1985.
Letters addressed to politicians belonging to various political parties and signed by the ULFA (I)’s self-styled deputy commander-in-chief, Drishti Rajkhowa, were also recovered from Borgohain’s possession.
Two diaries containing personal details like addresses, phone numbers, etc, of prominent political figures, along with five debit/credit cards of various banks, and three mobile phones were seized from him by the police.
Borgohain has been remanded to seven days’ police custody, and further investigation is on.
