In the 1,000-crore North Cachar Hills scam, a special court of National Investigative Agency (NIA) on Tuesday afternoon handed out punishment to all the convicts.
The three main kingpins – Jewel Garlosa, Niranjan Hojai and Mohit Hojai – were sentenced life imprisonment by the special court. Other convicts – RH Khan, Partha Waris, Jibangsu Pal, Fazendra Hojai, Debasis Battacharya and Jayanta Ghosh – were sentenced 10 years imprisonment. Babul Kemprai, Sandip Ghosh and Karuna Saikia were handed jail term of 8 years.
The case was first registered with Basistha police station (April 1, 2009) following the recovery of Rs 1 crore along with two pistols and letterheads of the banned Dima Halam Daoga. Subsequently, the central government handed over the case to the NIA.
The scam refers to the siphoning off of funds meant for development activities in the North Cachar Hills district (now called Dima Hasao district) to the coffers of the militants, particularly the Dima Halam Daoga (DHD) militants led by its chairman Jewel Garlosa. The money was allegedly used to procure arms and ammunition to wage war against India.
