New Delhi, May 30 (IANS): The Supreme Court will hear, on Friday, a habeas corpus petition seeking production of former United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) peace negotiator Rebati Phukan, who is missing since April 22.
The vacation bench of Justice L. Nageswara Rao and Justice Mohan M. Shatnanagoudar agreed to hear the habeas corpus petition after it was mentioned on Tuesday for an urgent hearing.
The petition has been moved by Rebati Pukhan's son Kaushik Pukhan who has said that his father left Pune for Guwahati on April 19 after meeting his family but went missing subsequently and has sought direction to the Central, Assam and Meghalaya governments to produce his father.
Seeking the transfer of investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation or any other independent agency, he has also sought direction to Assam Police to produce a status report on its investigation to trace his father.
Kaushik Pukhan has also sought security for himself, his family and journalist Aamir Hazarika who had informed him regarding the whereabouts of Rebati Pukhan in Shillong.
Kaushik Pukhan has said that he has come to know that on April 20, his father attended a secret meeting with Shantanu Thakuria, a retired bureaucrat, and Pranab Pathak, Advocate General, Assam High Court, wherein a proposed memorandum to negotiate with ULFA chief Paresh Baruah was being discussed before being presented before Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon.
The petitioner further said that it has come to his knowledge that on April 22, his father, as per his routine, went for his morning walk, at about 7 a.m., leaving behind his wallet, mobile phones, medicines and a religious chain which the he would wear after his morning walk.
The same morning when the maid reached his rented accommodation at about 7:30 a.m., she found that the house's main door was open, no one was inside and the servant had left after cooking food, says the habeas corpus petition.
Recalling the different peace parleys undertaken by Rebati Pukhan to bring peace in Assam, his son said that it has come his knowledge that his father on his return to Guwahati, made several calls to various unknown numbers, mostly Delhi numbers, but he himself tried to reach those numbers, the calls would not get through.