The fasttrack court of Additional Session Judge II on Friday granted bail to a militant belonging to United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), Phatik Hatimota, an accused in the murder of high-profile social worker Sanjoy Ghose in 1997 in Assam.
The counsel of the ULFA militants informed that the court granted bail to him on basic conditions that he would not leave Assam and appear before the Central Bureau of Investigation team every month, he will have to physically present in the court on every subsequent date of hearing of the case.
Phatik Hatimota was arrested from Majuli on November 25, 2011. He was among the eleven ULFA militants, including the outfit's commander-in-chief Paresh Barua, who were convicted in the Sanjoy Ghose abduction and killing case. The CBI, which probed the killing of the social worker in 1997, had filed charge sheets against 11 cadres of the outfit.
While two of the culprits Moni Neog and Kania Hazarika are serving life terms, five accuse ULFA cadres had died in encounters with security forces over the years and three -- Paresh Barua, Pradip Baruah and Anjan Borthakur -- are still absconding.
Hatimota, who hails from Majuli, was the mastermind behind the abduction and subsequent killing of Sanjoy Ghose. He abducted Ghose from the Bongaon area of the island on July 7, 1997. Since then Ghose went untraced. According to confession made by a few ULFA cadres arrested in this connection, Ghose was taken on a boat, killed the very day he was kidnapped and his body dumped in the Brahmaputra River.
The social worker's body was never recovered. The incident had been condemned worldwide and put the ULFA on the back foot. The outfit's commander in chief Paresh Barua initially tried to mislead the family members of Ghose about his whereabouts.
