In a blow to the anti-talk ULFA faction led by Paresh Baruah, security forces on Tuesday captured his right hand man and publicity secretary Arun Udoy Dehotia in Assam’s Sonitpur district.
On a tip off, a joint team of men from the 44 Assam Rifles unit and police men raided village Jinjia under Biswanath subdivision and apprehended hardcore Ritik Hazarika alias `Lieutenant’ Arun Udoy Dehotia, police sources said.
A 9-mm pistol with two magazines were recovered from him, the sources said, adding Dehotia was being interrogated at the Assam Rifles Lokra camp here.
Dehotia hails from Panbortia village near here and had left home about 20 years ago as a teenager to join the insurgent outfit, the sources said.
After the split of the ULFA following the arrest of its chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and other top leaders last year, Dehotia, who was very close to his ‘commander-in-chief’, was given the charge of the Paresh-led faction’s publicity secretary and since then was regularly sending e-mails to the media here with the last one being sent on July 17.
Dehotiya was captured during operation ‘All Clear’ against ULFA camps in Bhutan in 2003. No case was found against him and he was later released.
Then again in 2006, he was arrested on the allegations of planting a bomb at Bihoguri Namghar temple near Tezpur.
But he was later let-off due to lack of evidence about his involvement in the case. Then he went back to ULFA and since then was actively participating in subversive activities.
