Guwahati, Feb. 12: The arrest of a Deccan staffer in Guwahati on the basis of an Ulfa militant’s claim that the youth helped the banned group plan a hijack has left a trail of unanswered questions.

Police produced Deccan customer care executive Sumanta Dutta and rights activist Lachit Bordoloi, arrested on the basis of the same Ulfa militant’s “revelations”, in a city court today but came up with little to corroborate the information they claimed to have gathered about the duo’s activities.

Dutta was taken into custody yesterday around the same time that Bordoloi, a member of Ulfa’s handpicked group of mediators for peace talks, was detained in Moran town and brought here.

Both were remanded in police custody for five days. The police had asked for a 10-day remand, charging the duo under Sections 120 (B), 121 (A), 122 and 124 of the IPC, read with Section 4 of the Explosives Substances Act, Sections 10 and 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Section 25 (1A) of the Arms Act. But when Bordoloi's counsel Bijon Mahajan argued that his client was arrested on the sole basis of a militant’s statements, sub-divisional judicial magistrate (Sadar) Md. Darak Ullah halved the remand period requested by the police.

Bordoloi told the media while coming out of the court that his arrest was part of a conspiracy to derail Delhi’s peace process with Ulfa. “Certain forces inimical to the peace talks have hatched the conspiracy,” he said.

On who were the conspirators, he said the state government and the police, especially IGP (Special Branch) Khagen Sarma.

Bordoloi’s supporters shouted anti-government slogans in front of the court. Sumanta’s father Basanta Kumar Dutta said his son was innocent and did not have anything to do with Ulfa or any such outfit.

Ulfa member Manoj Tamuli, arrested in the city on Saturday, told the police that Sumanta accompanied him and another man, Akash Thapa, to New Delhi in November for a meeting with militant leader Sashadhar Choudhury. He claimed that the Deccan staffer gave Choudhury security-sensitive information about Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport and flights taking off from there.

The questions that are being raised now are:

Why have the police not come up with any proof that Sumanta travelled to Delhi along with Ulfa cadre? (Sumanta’s father said his son was in Guwahati all along.)

Why are the police, which seem to believe the arrested militant’s claim about the hijack plot, not verifying Ulfa’s denial about the hijack?

Why would Ulfa involve a member who has been in and out of the outfit in a big operation like a hijack? Generally, people not named in police records are engaged.

How is it that none of the Ulfa militants who have surrendered or been arrested in recent times mentioned anything about the outfit’s members being trained for a hijack by “foreigners” in Baksa?

The training in Baksa was supposed to have been conducted in April last year. How was that possible when an intensive search operation was under way in that area to rescue the abducted FCI regional director P.C. Ram?

Why would Ulfa impart training for a hijack in Baksa when it can easily do it in Bangladesh with the ISI’s help?

How did Sasadhar Choudhury enter New Delhi when he is one of the most-wanted Ulfa leaders and is said to be out of the country?

As question after question about the arrests was raised in Assam, Union home secretary Madhukar Gupta said in New Delhi that Ulfa needed to directly approach the Centre for talks. “And abjure violence.” he added.

A source in the home ministry said later that the government did not approve of the outfit engaging a "third party" for negotiations.