Country’s Most Wanted Terrorist Is Still Railway Employee
Playing truant for nearly three decades, one of country’s most wanted terrorists has not attended office, though he continues to be a Central Government employee in Assam.
Paresh Baruah, the self-styled commander-in-chief of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), is an employee of the Northeast Frontier Railways.
He got job in Railways as a porter in 1979 at the age of 21 under the sports quota (he was a footballer) and joined at the Railways in the Tinsukia division in eastern Assam.
“We joined together as a porter at a monthly salary of Rs 370. Paresh Baruah was sincere in his practice sessions (played football for the railways), but by January 1980 he simply vanished not to be seen again,” Supriyo Choudhury, now promoted to a conductor in the railways, was quoted as saying by IANS.
Baruah floated the ULFA in April 1979 teaming up with five others, self-styled Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa among them.
According to reports, both of them are running operations of the terror outfit from Bangladesh. However, latest intelligence reports have suggested that Baruah might have sneaked into China for shelter.
In spite of three decades absence from the office, Baruah is still registered as an employee of the Railways.
“The name Paresh Baruah is significant and he is absent from duties for a very long period. His salary slip shows zero, but he is still an employee according to the records,” said deputy railway manager of the Tinsukia division, Sanjoy Mookerjee.
“There is an enquiry on to find out if the Paresh Baruah who is in our rolls is the same Paresh Baruah (meaning ULFA leader). That time when he joined there were no photographs and so it is difficult to verify the records now.”
Hailing from Jeraigaon village in Tinsukia district, about 500 km east of Assam’s main city of Guwahati, the elusive Baruah is described as a ‘violent man’ with red corner notices issued against him and the Interpol on the prowl. The maximum penalty he potentially faces is the death sentence, according to the Assam Police.
