NALBARI, Dec 26 ? The 64 ULFA kin who were handed over to the Indian authorities day before yesterday by the Bhutanese authorities, were remanded to 48-hour police custody by the Nlabari Chief Judicial Magistrate?s court All the kin were sent back to the Tamulpur 30-bedded Hospital, where they are lodged for interrogation by the security forces. They were remanded to police custody in connection with the Tamulpur Police station case number 203/03 under sections 121 (A)/123/125/10/13 of the IPC and section 120 (B) of the IPC.
Police, however, prevented the kin from talking to newspersons. But, some of the newsmen could talk to some of the kin stealthily. Talking to this correspondent, Asomi Devi, a self-styled lieutenant of theULFA, who came to the court along with her two-year old daughter Venus Goswami, said that they were under tremendous pressure from the police and the Army to surrender before the authorities. Finding no alternative to that, she said that they had ?decided to surrender. Asomi was captured by the Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) at the general headquarters of the ULFA at Deothan.
Mridula Dutta, who hails from Jorhat and is the wife of self-styled captain Rahul Dutta, said that they were not misbehaved by the RBA nor they were subjected to any torture by the Bhyutanese Army. However, Additional Superintendent of Police, Nalbari Jitmal Doley told newsmen that during interrogation , Mridula told them that her husband Rahul was killed by the RBA at the ULFA general headquarters despite his holding a white flag signalling readiness to surrender.
Most of the women handed over to the Indian authorities by the Bhutanese authorities were however the members of the outfit?s armed wing and they came to the court today in their battle fatigues and only some of them were in Bhutanese costumes. Their children were found to be gleeful and when talked to a two-year old boy Abhinava Deka smartly told this correspondent his name. But his mother prevented him from talking more.