The Assam police on Monday arrested three persons, including one of its constables, for their alleged involvement in the abduction of three employees of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Limited on April 21.
Basanta Buragohain, a constable with the 25th Assam Police (ONGC) Battalion, was arrested from his Sadiya residence in eastern Assam's Tinsukia district. The two others arrested were Biraj Chetia of Banipur in Dibrugarh district and Rahul Mohan of Sepon in Sivasagar district.
Two other policemen who were deployed at the ONGC’s workover rig at Lakwa in Charaideo district were absconding, the police said. Members of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent (ULFA-I) had abducted the three employees from the rig site.
“In connection with the abduction of 3 ONGC employees..., three persons have been arrested so far who are found to be directly involved in the case, in addition to some others linked with the banned organisation,” Assam’s Director-General of Police, Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, tweeted.
The security forces rescued two of the abducted employees — Junior technician Mohini Mohan Gogoi and junior engineering assistant Alakesh Saikia — after a gunfight with their abductors near Totokchingnyu village in Nagaland's Mon district on April 23 night. The fate of the third employee Ritul Saikia, a junior technician, is still not known.
The ULFA had on April 24 claimed that they had handed over the three employees to some villagers as the outfit was concerned about their safety amidst the gunfight. The two rescued employees trashed the ULFA-I’s narrative.
Mr. Mahanta said efforts were on to trace and rescue the third abducted employee from the custody of the ULFA-I and Yung Aung faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland.
