Jailed Assam’s drug lord escapes from hospital

Sushanta Talukdar

He drugged 2 policemen guarding him in a ward

GUWAHATI: Assam’s drug lord and one of the accused in the murder of a senior Revenue Intelligence Official — Pakhi Mian alias Samsul Haque Talukdar — escaped from judicial custody after allegedly drugging two policemen in the Guwahati Medical Collage and Hospital (GMCH) in the early hours of Monday.
Police said preliminary investigations showed that Mian possibly drugged the policemen, guarding him in a ward, by mixing drugs with coffee he offered them.
Mian, arrested by the West Bengal police in April 2007 and later handed over to the Assam Police, is an accused in several cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, apart from the murder of Revenue Intelligence Official Tarun Dutta.
An attendant of another patient in the ward said Mian had played cards with the two policemen and offered them coffee on Sunday night. After taking coffee, both the policemen started vomiting and while they were being attended to by attendants in the ward, Mian reportedly told them he was going to the toilet. Only when the guards recovered from sickness did they realise that Mian had already escaped.
Additional Superintendent of Police Jayashree Khersa told The Hindu that Mian was admitted to the hospital on the night of December 19. “Preliminary investigation revealed that the two policemen fell sick after having coffee. One of them started vomiting and the other felt dizziness. Mian took advantage of their sickness to escape from the hospital ward,” she said.
Manhunt The police official said that search operations were carried out at Mian’s residence in Baghorbori locality of the city and other hideouts and all districts have been alerted. Police suspect that Mian was an accused in the murder of Dutta as the drug lord had a stake in the consignment of ganjas and other narcotic substances intercepted by the Revenue Intelligence official. Dutta was murdered on September 12, 2006 near his residence.
Ganja seizure In September 2005, a team of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and the Assam Police seized ganja worth Rs. 4.6 crore and two AK-47 rifles and six duplicate weapons from 12 people posing as security personnel and transporting the consignment in three trucks from near Kaliabhomora bridge connecting central Assam’s Tezpur and Kaliabor.
Another consignment of about 14,000 kg of ganja stuffed in a LPG tanker was intercepted at Khetri in Kamrup (Metropolitan) district. Police sources claimed that Mian had a stake in both consignments.