A TADA court here on Tuesday granted bail to two top leaders of the United Liberation Front of Asom.
Vice-chairman Pradip Gogoi and central publicity secretary Mithinga Daimary are likely to be released from the Central Jail here on Wednesday after they submit bail bonds to the court. The court granted bail to the duo on a surety of Rs. 1 lakh each and on three conditions — the ULFA leaders are to submit their passport, if they have any, to the court; they must not leave the territory of the court’s jurisdiction without intimation; and they must not misuse their liberty.
Gogoi has been in jail for the past 12 years since he was arrested in Kolkata in April 1998. Daimary was captured by the Royal Bhutan Army during the “Operation All Clear” against the outfit in Bhutan in December 2003 and handed over to the Assam police in January 2004.
Decks were cleared for the release of the two militant leaders after Public Prosecutor Pradip Gogoi on February 16 informed the court that he was verbally instructed by the State government that it had no objection to giving them bail. Pradip Gogoi jumped bail in 1996.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, the State government transferred the jailed ULFA ideologue, Bhimkanta Buragohain alias Mama, from the Tezpur jail to the Guwahati Central Jail, which political circles see as a move to facilitate a meeting between all jailed leaders of the militant outfit’s central executive council ahead of the release of Pradip Gogoi and Mithinga Daimary to discuss the repeated appeal by Delhi and Dispur to the outfit to sit for peace talks.
