Assam CM's Vigilance Cell raids Congress MLA's house

Guwahati, Nov 7 (IANS) A team of the Assam Chief Minister’s Vigilance Cell conducted a marathon raid at Congress MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha's house in Karimganj district over alleged irregularities in the purchase of a tea garden.

Purkayastha, a three-time MLA and state working president of the Congress, has come under the scanner after he reportedly bought the share of the tea by investigating Rs 89 lakhs.

The MLA was however, not present at his residence during Monday's raid.

The Vigilance Cell officials instead questioned his brother Kalyan Dey Purkayastha and inspected different documents.

Later, they also visited a warehouse owned by a relative of he legislator who has been awarded a handsome amount of government contracts in the last few years.

Leader of Opposition in the Assam Assembly, Debabrata Saikia, told IANS on Tuesday that the "BJP has been unleashing government agencies on opposition leaders as we are vocal against the large-scale corruption by ministers and Chief Minister’s family".

"The state Congress president Bhupen Borah, Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha are being harassed for raising the corruption issue. This is pure vendetta politics done by the Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma,” Saikia added.

According to him, the BJP has been using these tactics all over the country to put pressure on opposition leaders.

Earlier, the Vigilance Cell team visited the MLA-owned Pramod Nagar tea estate in Karimganj district twice and questioned its manager over the property's yearly turnover.

The officers also question the tea garden's labourers whether they were getting their regular renumeration or not.

The team also made a trip to the circle office at Karimganj town where they asked the staffers land-related documents.

Some of the associates of the Congress legislator who were involved in purchasing the share of the tea garden were also quizzed.

Recently, Pranjit Das, a etired Public Works Department (PWD) engineer and a close confidante of the MLA, was grilled by the Vigilance Cell officers.