AIZAWL:
Allegations linking Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga with the illegal Burmese supari syndicate are flying thick and fast.
The state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Lalremsangi Fanai on Thursday said that Assam BJP legislator Jayanta Malla Barua has confirmed that one Abu Mazumdar, who is wanted by the Assam police in connection with the illegal supari syndicate, was part of the Mizoram team during a dinner between Zoramthanga and his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma in New Delhi last year.
Lalremsangi said that Barua confirmed the alleged link between Mizoram chief minister and Mazumdar over the phone. “In the said dinner, Mazumdar of Silchar was not part of the Assam team but Mizoram’s,” Fanai quoted Barua as saying.
The allegation came on the heels of an online news report on February 5 saying that Zoramthanga had invited Mazumdar for dinner along with Himanta Biswa Sarma in New Delhi last year; a photo has been doing the rounds on the Internet showing Zoramthanga, Sarma, Assam cabinet minister Atul Bora and the alleged areca nut smuggler having dinner.
Joining the chorus of allegations, Mizoram Congress MLA Zodintluanga said that the photo is proof that Mazumdar is a close ally of Zoramthanga and the government is deeply involved in the illegal supari syndicate. “The Mizoram government’s silence on the rampant smuggling of areca nuts through the state and the presence of an alleged supari smuggler in the chief ministerial-level dinner are strong indications that the state government is deeply involved in smuggling,” he said, addressing a party meeting at Siaha town in southern Mizoram, on Thursday.
Earlier, in a statement released by the government, on February 7, Mizoram National Front’s general secretary Lalthanzuala Hnamte had denied all allegations and said that it was not Zoramthanga, but Sarma who had hosted the dinner. He had also asked all accusers to fact-check with the registration desk at Delhi’s Assam House where the dinner was hosted.
Rejecting the MNF’s “clarifications”, Fanai said, “The Assam government would not have attempted to arrest Mazumdar and he would not have absconded if he was that close to the Assam CM.”