GUWAHATI: Ritul Saikia, one of the ONGC employees abducted by the United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent (ULFA-I) is alive, said Assam director general of police (DGP) Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta while talking to media in Guwahati on Thursday. Mahanta said Saikia is still in the ULFA’s custody.
The DGP said police has been tracing the location of Ritul Saikia, a junior technician with the ONGC and coordinating with various agencies to recover him.
“We have got the location of the group….They are stuck along the Indo-Myanmar border…. We are collecting information with the coordination of Assam Rifles and Nagaland Police. According to our information, he is alive in ULFA’s custody,” said Mahanta.
He stated influential Naga group — Konyak Union has asked ULFA-I to release the abductee alive.
Days after the insurgent group released Quippo Oil and Gas Infrastructure Limited’s drilling superintendent Pranab Kumar Gogoi (51) and radio operator Ram Kumar (35) on April 3 and 5 respectively, a group of 5 ULFA-I militants abducted three ONGC employees— Mohini Mohan Gogoi, Ritul Saikia and Alakesh Saikia from a work over rig site (ROM-100 III) of ONGC on April 21 midnight.
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. However, mystery shrouded over the fate of the third employee — Ritul Saikia.
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.
—Rinkumani Pathak
