By IANS
Guwahati : The Assam government Saturday ordered an investigation to probe the controversial claim that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) executive director P.C. Ram is alive a week after he was reported killed.
"We have ordered a thorough investigation on the claim made by Praveen (Ram's son) that his father was still alive and that Ram spoke on the telephone to their family in Ghaziabad Friday," an Assam government spokesperson said.
Last Sunday police recovered a mutilated body from Anandpur village in Baska district in western Assam. Praveen arrived in Baska from Ghaziabad Monday and identified the body as that of his father.
The body was flown to Ghaziabad with the government according due honours and paying floral tributes at the airport. Ram's family performed the last rites in Ghaziabad.
The entire episode took a bizarre twist when a caller believed to be Ram telephoned Praveen in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh Friday afternoon to say he was alive. "We are convinced that the caller was my father. He spoke for about 20 minutes with my mother and my sister as well," Praveen, a management student, told journalists.
Ram reportedly told his family that he was in the custody of outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) activists who kidnapped him from Guwahati April 17.
The government Saturday sent samples to a laboratory in Hyderabad for DNA tests to confirm the identity of the body that Praveen had earlier identified as that of his father.
Assam police corroborated the family's claim, saying Ram was alive and the body identified by his son as his father's could be of an army spy killed by the ULFA.
"Ram is alive for sure. We had some doubts when we recovered the decomposed body, but when Praveen (Ram's son) himself claimed and identified that the body was that of his father we couldn't do much and obliged," Assam police intelligence chief Khagen Sharma told IANS Saturday.
"We believe the body which Praveen thought was that of his father and later cremated could have been of an army informer killed by ULFA.
"It is always difficult to identify a decomposed body and Praveen might have been a little emotional when he came to identify the body. Maybe under stress, he wrongly identified and claimed the body and we could do very little when a son said it was his father," Sharma said.
Security agencies were continuing the search for Ram.
"Even after Praveen claimed the body was of his father, we on our own continued with the search. Efforts are on to secure his release." The ULFA is seeking the release of two of their jailed leaders in exchange for Ram's release, besides demanding a ransom of Rs.20 million.