By IANS
Guwahati : The body of abducted Food Corporation of India (FCI) executive director Phulchand Ram, who was feared killed in a gun battle Thursday when the Assam police tried to rescue him from militants, was identified by his son.
“I am fully convinced and have no doubt at all this body is that of my father,” Ram’s son Praveen Gautam told IANS at a hospital morgue here.
Ram was killed in the gunfight early Thursday at Borkapanitema village, about 50 km west of Assam’s main city of Guwahati, while police tried to rescue him from the clutches of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).
Gautam and his uncle arrived in Guwahati Thursday night from Ghaziabad near New Delhi after being informed by the Assam government about the incident.
Earlier police said two ULFA militants and a middle-aged man who resembled Ram were killed in the gunfight that lasted several hours.
The FCI official was abducted from Guwahati April 17 by the ULFA with police earlier saying the rebels demanded Rs.20 million as ransom for his release.
“The two ULFA militants and the middle-aged man (believed to be Ram) were sheltered in a house belonging to a local farmer. The encounter lasted for several hours and there was heavy exchange of fire,” G.P. Singh, deputy inspector general of Assam Police, told IANS.
Police later recovered two AK-56 rifles, a grenade, a pistol, a crude bomb, besides a large quantity of ammunition from the house.
On June 30, a mutilated body was recovered by police from Baska district in western Assam and police believed it was Ram – the body was later identified by his son who came from Ghaziabad.
The last rites were also performed by his family in Ghaziabad.
But in a dramatic twist, Ram called up his family in Ghaziabad Friday and spoke to his wife, son, and daughter, for close to 20 minutes to say he was safe and alive in the custody of the ULFA.
The ULFA later demanded the release of two of their jailed leaders to set Ram free as a precondition to the government.
The Assam police also confirmed Saturday that Ram was alive and a search operation was on to secure his release.
The person whom Praveen earlier identified as his father was later suspected by the Assam police to be an army spy killed by the ULFA.