Mamun Mia gets ten-day police remand in Tripura

By Pinaki Das

Agartala, June 20 : Tripura Chief Judicial Magistrate court has ordered a ten-day police remand to a suspected Bangladeshi militant Mamun Mia, alias Suman Majumdar to probe into the matter of his links with state Food and Civil Supplies Minister Sahid Choudhury in anti-Indian activities and trafficking in arms and explosives.

Mian was arrested by the West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department on March 27 from Agartala following the arrest of two Bangladeshis, Alamgir Hussain and Shamim Akhtar, from Howrah along with some arms and exlosives.

Though Mamun did have a known source of income but lived a lavish life in a rented house hardly 200 metres away from the state police headquarters.

The rented house is said to be of a close relative of Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar where Mamun was introduced by Food and Civil Supplies Minister Sahid Choudhury.

Meanwhile, the Food and Civil Supplies Minister Sahid Choudhury claimed that he had resigned in order to facilitate a "free and fair investigation".

But opposition Congress which staged a walkout from the Assembly House, after an uproar demanding CBI inquiry said that Choudhury helped Mamun Mian to procure not only a permanent resident certificate (PRC) but also an Indian passport in exchange of large sum of money.

Opposition Leader Ratan Lal Nath alleged that Mamun is an agent of the Bangladeshi intelligence Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) and with his help, the Left had transited money to militants for wining the last Assembly Election early this year.

Earlier, several ministers in the northeast have been accused of helping insurgent groups with funds and vehicles as well as providing them shelter in official quarters but Choudhury is the first to have an inquiry instituted against him.

Meanwhile, the CPI (M) leader Choudhury, who is the lone Muslim minister in the newly-elected Left Front government in Tripura, is believed to have contributed to the victory of Chief Minister Manik Sarkar from Dhanpur - which falls in the same Sonamura subdivision as his own constituency Boxanagar - by campaigning among the Muslim voters.

ANI