A suspected coal mafia leader, who was arrested from Assam’s Karimganj district on Friday, was shot dead in a police encounter at a village in Hailakandi district late on Saturday night, police said. He had escaped from police custody on Saturday morning after he was taken to a hospital for a routine medical checkup. The person, identified as Abdul Ahad Choudhury was a resident of Karimganj’s Sutarkandi area near India-Bangladesh international border. He was arrested several times in the past for similar reasons, according to police.According to Superintendent of police of Hailakandi district Gaurav Upadhyay, Abdul Ahad was arrested from Achimganj area in Karimganj on Friday night. Later, police registered a suo moto case under section 279 (Rash driving), 379 (Punishment for theft), 411 (Dishonestly receiving stolen property), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 3 of The Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.We intensified vigil across Hailakandi district and Karimganj police helped us from their side. Our sources managed to locate him and tried to catch him while he was riding a motorcycle along with another person,” Upadhyaya said.
“Seeing police around, Abdul Ahad opened fire on our officials with a gun and in retaliation, police fired few rounds resulting severe injuries on his body, “ he said.His companion managed to escape and injured Abdul Ahad was taken to Hailakandi Civil Hospital immediately where doctors declared him dead. No police official was injured in the incident, the senior police official added. A suo moto case was registered by the police regarding the matter and during their investigation, police found that the truck which was carrying around 24.90 tons of coal and the truck coming from Meghalaya had connections with Abdul Ahad Choudhury. “The documents indicated Abdul Ahad’s connection with this smuggling. There were already multiple police cases against him related to illegal transportation of coal to Barak Valley from Meghalaya. As investigation proceeded, we arrested Abdul Ahad,” Basumatari said. According to police records, Abdul was also arrested in July, 2018 for his suspected involvement in illegal coal trade in Barak Valley and recovered a diary from his house. The diary had the names of some high-profile political leaders and police officials who were seemingly paid by Abdul every month for running the clandestine business of “black diamonds” without any trouble. A written statement of ₹3.51 crore paid to 17 high-profile officers and leaders was found in this diary. He was later released on bail.