News Analysis India

Tag: Hiteswar Saikia

  • CBI court grants bail to ex-Assam CM Saikia’s son in loan default case

    By PTI

    GUWAHATI: Guwahati, Nov 8 (PTI) A CBI court on Monday granted bail to Ashok Saikia, son of former Assam chief minister Hiteswar Saikia, who was arrested by the central agency in connection with the alleged default of a loan of over Rs 9 lakh 25 years ago.

    Saikia walked out of the court premise here on getting the bail after spending a night in the custody of the investigating agency.

    He was questioned by CBI Guwahati team and was arrested on Sunday on the basis of a non-bailable warrant issued against him for not appearing in the court despite summons, they said.

    Saikia, who is a businessman, had issued a statement through his elder brother on Sunday evening stating that he had taken a loan in 1996 from Assam State Co-operative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank Ltd (ASCARD) which he claimed to have repaid.

    He also shared a purported letter from the then ASCARD general manager in-charge stating that no dues were pending.

    “The CBI team suddenly came to our house and said my loan is pending. I did not receive any notice from the CBI or the court. I do not know why the CBI has pushed me into a baseless and fictitious case. Only the CBI or the government will know this,” the businessman said.

    His elder brother Debabrata Saikia, who is the Leader of Opposition in Assam Assembly, had also shared the purported ASCARD certificate with the media on Sunday.

    It was issued by its then general manager in-charge H N Borah on October 28, 2015 and said that Ashok Kumar Saikia, the director of HPS India Pvt Ltd, had availed a loan of Rs 9,37,701 under the bridge loan scheme in 1996.

    “As per our letter Ref. No. ASCARDB (L/C) 192/2002/61 dated 14.09.2011 under the compromise settlement scheme he has fully repaid the dues – both principal and interest. Now his aforesaid loan is liquidated,” the ASCARD certificate said.

    The authenticity of the said certificate could not be verified immediately.

    Debabrata Saikia said, “The CBI claimed that they had sent a notice. Our mother, who lives with Ashok, stays at home all the time and she said no notice came to us. Our advocate said that this case should not have been pursued at all. I do not know why such an old settled case is being raked up.”

    A senior Congress leader has alleged that CBI is being “used” by the BJP-led government at the Centre to harass the leader of the opposition in Assam after his statement on Saturday in connection with the claims of state BJP leaders on defection to the saffron party.

    “Saikia had said on Saturday that he will never join BJP after speculations became rife that he will do so. The speculations were floated just to demoralise Congress workers. The BJP is now using CBI to intimidate Saikia. It is tactic that the BJP adopts across the country,” the Congress leader told PTI on the condition of anonymity.

  • Loan default: Ex-Assam CM’s son arrested by CBI

    By Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday arrested Ashok Saikia, son of former Chief Minister the late Hiteswar Saikia and brother of leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia, in connection with a bank loan default case of 1996.

    Ashok, a businessman, had taken a loan of Rs 9.37 lakh from the Assam State Cooperative and Agriculture Development (ASCARD) Bank.

    A case was initially registered against him with the police in Guwahati and later, transferred to the CBI in 2001 after two more complaints were filed. Ashok claimed he had repaid the loan long ago and was being victimised.

    Debabrata said the bank itself had written a letter to his brother earlier about repayment of the loan in full.

    “My brother had taken a loan from ASCARD bank in 1996. The bank had made an offer for one-time settlement and he returned the money. On October 28, 2015, the bank’s general manager had sent him a letter stating that the loan was liquidated,” the leader of Opposition said.

    He said he was sure his brother would get justice from the court. 

  • Proud moment for Cotton University as Himanta Sarma becomes the institute’s seventh alumnus to don Assam CM’s hat

    By PTI
    GUWAHATI: When Himanta Biswa Sarma was sworn in as the 15th Chief Minister of Assam on Monday, he joined the league of six other alumni of Cotton University, a premier educational institution of the Northeastern region, who occupied the state’s top executive post.

    The state’s first chief minister, Bharat Ratna awardee Gopinath Bordoloi, was also a student of Cotton College in Guwahati, which became a university in 2011.

    The other five chief ministers who were alumni of the college were Mahendra Mohan Chowdhury, Sarat Chandra Sinha, Jogendra Nath Hazarika, Hiteswar Saikia and Bhumidhar Barman.

    The first Premier of Assam Province before Independence, Sir Syed Muhammad Saadulla, was also a student of Cotton College set up in 1901 by Sir Henry John Stedman Cotton, the then Chief Commissioner of Assam.

    Former Nagaland Chief Minister P.Shilu Ao was also a student of Cotton College.

    Sarma was the general secretary of the Cotton College Students’ Union in 1992.

    In that year, it became a Centre of Excellence as declared by then President Shankar Dayal Sharma paving the way for it to become a post-graduate college.

    It was upgraded to a university in 2011 as Cotton College State University by an Assam Government Act.

    Cotton College during its 119 years of existence has nurtured some of the best minds in the state.

    They include singer, lyricist, and filmmaker Bhupen Hazarika, Indologist Krishna Kanta Handique, litterateur Padmashree Surya Kumar Bhuyan, former governors Debananda Konwar and Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa, and former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.