CBI arrests Assam Minister for bribery bid

New Delhi: Assam's Education Minister Ripun Borah, a suspect in the murder of a political rival in 2000, was today arrested along with two others, including a journalist, by the CBI for allegedly offering a bribe of Rs 10 lakh to a CBI official to "negotiate" the outcome of the case.
The CBI official, probing the murder of student leader Daniel Toppo, filed a complaint last evening that Borah had allegedly offered him a bribe.
A case was filed in the designated court against Borah after which a trap was laid to arrest him.
Borah was arrested from Sundar Nagar on Mathura Road in south Delhi when he was allegedly offering the bribe to the official. Mukul Pathak, a journalist with a Guwahati-based Assamese daily, and businessman Ramesh Maheswari, both of whom were accompanying the minister, were also arrested by the CBI.
Toppo, district president of All Assam Tea Tribe Students' Union, was Borah's rival candidate during the 1996 assembly polls.
Reacting to Borah's arrest, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said "law will take its own course.
"The CBI was handed over the investigation into the case in 2001 after the Assam Police could not make any breakthrough into the murder that took place on September 27, 2000.
Borah, who had a long innings as Assam Pradesh Congress Committee spokesman, is a suspect in the murder case and had been questioned several times by the CBI.
He is claimed to have approached the CBI officer through the middleman for negotiating the outcome of the investigation into the murder case.
The CBI registered a case under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act. In Guwahati, the minister's office maintained that he had arrived in the Assam capital from Delhi and was on his way to office.
The state CID had given Borah a clean chit in the case but the Gauhati High Court had ordered a CBI probe into it.
Borah has been thrice elected to the state assembly from Gohpur constituency in Sonitpur district.Ironically, soon after Borah took over his ministry two years ago, he launched an anti-corruption drive in his department, suspending several people for allegedly taking bribe and failing to maintain office duty hours.