ULFA leaders release for Ram in Centre's court

Guwahati, July 9: The Asom government today placed the issue of releasing two jailed ULFA leaders in the Centre's court in exchange of release of abducted FCI executive director P C Ram by the outfit.

The ULFA has demanded freedom for Mrinal Hazarika and Pallab Saikia in return to release of Ram, who was abducted on April 17 last.

The latest develoment arose following Ram's reported phone call to his family in Ghaziabad on July 6 and ULFA's demand communicated to a vernacular media here last night.

Reacting to Ulfa's demand, state government spokesperson Ripun Bora said, " we will have to discuss the issue of releasing the jailed militants with the Centre including the Home ministry".

"Whether Ram is safe as claimed by the Ulfa will be cleared only if he returns," he added.

Meanwhile, media reports here quoted an intelligence source as saying that Ram's call to his residence was made from a satellite phone from Pakistan. This came to light following an investigation by the Uttar Pradesh police on the numbers recorded on the telephone of Ram's residence.

The government and the Assam Police had confirmed that Ram is alive after his son Pravin received a phone call from Ram in the evening of July 6, a week after Ram's reported 'body' was identified by Pravin and cremated accordingly.

Ripun Bora today said search operations to rescue Ram were still on.

A decomposed body, dug out in Baksa district of lower Asom on June 29, was identified as that of the FCI NE boss by his adopted daughter Junu Murmu and the FCI officials with Pravin confirming the identification a day later.

The corps was then flown to New Delhi, where it was cremated by Ram's family, with the Prime Minister also sending a condolence to the bereaved family.

Later Ulfa claimed that the body was of an Army intelligence man and Ram was safe in its captivity.

Though the government initially negated the outfit's claims, a call from Ram to his family on Friday, with his son Pravin confirming his father's voice, made the government do a volte-face.

The result of a DNA sample test of the recovered body was still awaited. However, apprehensions aired by forensic experts here over the feasibility of a DNA test with the skin and hair samples collected from the highly decomposed body had cast doubt over the test.

Pravin, who had identified the body as his father's, later said that he could have committed a mistake due to trauma of last few months and maintained that the July 6 call was "undoubtedly from his father." The ULFA was earlier reported to have demanded a ransom of Rs 21 crore, though Pravin never confirmed whether any money had been transacted.

UNI

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