A Coal Mafia mastermind named Abdul Ahad Choudhury, who was responsible for the illegal transportation of coal in the Barak Valley of Assam, was killed in an encounter with Police at Sunday Midnight around 1:30 AM. Choudhury was absconding while fleeing from police custody on Saturday and was killed in a skirmish with Assam Police in the Lakhinagar area of Assam’s Hailakandi district.
As reported by East Mojo, Lala police in Umednagar, Assam seized a truck illegally ferrying coal. A suo moto case under Sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way), 379 (theft), 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and Section 3 (mischief causing damage to public property) of The Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act was registered by the Assam Police on Saturday. During the investigation, Abdul Ahad Choudhury was found with 24.90 tons of coal inside the truck coming from Meghalaya.
Choudhury was a resident of the Karimganj district in Assam. Gaurav Upadhyay, SP, Hailakandi district informed that the police had nabbed accused Abdul Choudhury into custody on Saturday morning and had taken him for a medical check-up. However, he managed to escape from custody while he being taken to the hospital. “The police had arrested Abdul Ahad Choudhury in the morning of Saturday and he fled from police custody as the police team had taken him to the hospital for medical check-up,” SP Upadhyay said.
After the escape, the police launched an operation to nab him again. The SP informed that they had set up a checking point in the Lakhinagar area on the basis of secret information. When Abdul Ahad Choudhury arrived at the spot, he saw the cops and and started firing on them. The police returned fire and eventually the smuggler was shot. SP Upadhyay said, “Chaudhury was armed and was riding on a motorcycle behind someone. When he saw the checking point, he opened fire. We retaliated and rushed him to the hospital after he sustained bullet injuries where the doctors declared him brought dead.”
The CBI, in 2020 had filed a case to investigate the illegal coal trade from Meghalaya to Bangladesh via Barak Valley in South Assam in which Choudhury was found suspect. The police arrested him in 2018 regarding the case after a diary containing details of the case was recovered from his house. The diary contained names of some high-profile political leaders and police officials who were allegedly paid by Abdul every month for running the clandestine business of “black diamonds”. A written statement of payment to 17 high-profile officers of Rs 3,51 crore was found in this diary.