Calling the bluff of outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), a key witness in the Sanjoy Ghosh murder case, has disclosed that the social worker was killed the day he was abducted.

Submitting before Additional Adhoc Judge P. K. Phukan of the Sessions Court, the boatman from Majuli said four armed ULFA youth arrived at his house in the evening hours on July 4, 1997 with Sanjoy Ghosh. He said he initially could not identify Sanjoy Ghosh who was wearing blue shoes.

The boatman’s statement, whose name was withheld because of security reasons, clearly proves the double standard of the ULFA. Because, even after killing the social activist, ULFA leader Paresh Barua claimed Sanjoy was alive and had put three conditions for his release.

As a matter of fact ULFA never came clean in the Sanjoy Ghosh episode. First it said that Sanjoy Ghosh died after he fell from a steep rocky hill during the captivity. Butunder tremendous criticism from the public as well as the press, ULFA withdrew its statement on the death of Sanjoy. The outfit said Sanjoy was alive. Soon afterwards, it said Sanjoy was killed in an exchange of fire during his captivity. ULFA also claimed that they punished Sanjoy as he was an Indian agent.

But the boatman’s statement debunks everthing ULFA had said. The statement proves that Sanjoy was murdered in cold blood. The boatman disclosed that the armed ULFA youths asked him to carry them on a boat to the Brahmaputra’s chapori. "I told them that I did not have a boat. They managed a boat themselves. Besides their arms, the ULFA youth carried a gunny bag and a machete. I was rowing the boat and dropped them at the chapori. When I was having my dinner on that particular day, I heard sounds of gun fire from the chapori side," he submitted before the court.

The boatman said the following morning, the four ULFA youths returned to his house. "When I inquired about the fifth person who was wearing the blue shoes, they said that he had left for Sivasagar."

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed chargesheets against ULFA chief Paresh Baruah and several others in the case. Sanjoy was an activist of AVARD-NE, a NGO working nationwide for rural development. He was abducted by the ULFA after few months stay in Majuli.

The CBI chargesheet said Sanjoy was murdered in cold blood by the ULFA. His body was wrapped in a gunny bag and then thrown in a tributary of the Brahmaputra. The body of Sanjoy Ghosh has not been found till date.

Sumita Ghosh, wife of Sanjoy Ghosh has disclosed the sequences of events leading to the ‘abduction’ as a "punishment" for exposing the ‘unholy nexus’ that existed among the contractors, the ULFA leaders and the Government officials in Majuli.

Deposing before the Phukan Court, she said that the "commander-in-chief" of the ULFA Paresh Baruah had contacted her over telephone on the release of her husband. Sumita Ghosh stated that as her husband had exposed the unholy nexus, ULFA launched a smear campaign against Sanjoy and branded him as an agent of the Indian Army. According to her, the ULFA leaders Siraj Bora and Phatik Hatimota and others abducted Sanjoy Ghosh.

"Senior BBC journalist Subir Bhaumik contacted Sanjoy’s aunt Arundhuti Ghosh and requested her to convey to me that Paresh Baruah wanted to talk to me." "At that time I was in New Delhi. As soon as I received Subir Bhaumik message, I reached Kolkata. I talked to Bhaumik over phone. During the conversation, Bhaumik received a call from Paresh Baruah," she told the Court.

Sumita said Paresh Baruah set three conditions like stopping all activities of the AVARD-NE, handing over of Sanjoy to a third party and suspension of the Army operation in Assam for the release of her husband.

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