Guwahati News Desk: Guwahati police arrested former ACA (Assam Cricket Association) secretary Pradip Buragohain from his Tingkhong residence in Dibrugarh last night and brought him to Guwahati today. The police also called several others to the police station. They are under examination. Currently, Buragohain is in Fatasil Ambari Police Station here. The police will produce him before the court tomorrow.
DCP West Nabaneet Mahanta told the media that the police got substantial evidence against Buragohain. The ACA lodged an FIR on December 6 against him, he said. Fatasil Ambari Police registered a case (817/2021 u/s 120(B)/406/409/420/469/34 IPC) against Pradip Buragohain. According to the FIR, Pradip Buragohain misused crores of ACA funds during his tenure as the secretary. According to sources, the ACA had anomalies of diverse hues from 2002 to 2016. Buragohain was the ACA secretary from August 16, 2016, to January 12, 2019. Anomalies marred his tenure, the sources said.
The new ACA committee formed in 2019 did form a five-member accounts verification committee headed by veteran sports organizer Jamshed Khan on April 27, 2019. The account verification committee scrutinized the accounts to ascertain the allegations of misuse of funds by the former ACA committee. The accounts verification committee doubted that the ACA had misused crores of rupees on the pretext of booking hotel rooms, air tickets, food, during cricket events, earth-filling, etc.
Based on the accounts verification committee report, the Assam Cricket Association sought an explanation from Buragohain and asked him to appear before the apex council to clarify his views in September last year. Buragohain appeared before the apex council and clarified his views. However, the apex council was not satisfied with his statement. The ACA asked him to refund the amount. Sources, however, said that Buragohain has not complied with the ACA’s direction as yet.
ACA secretary Devajit Saikia said, “It’s unfortunate. The ACA is not happy with the arrest. We don’t want any misuse of funds meant for the development of games and sports or otherwise.”
