By IRNA,
Guwahati, India : India has sacked one of the country’s most wanted terrorists for remaining absent from work for close to three decades, officials Friday said.
Self-styled commander-in-chief of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) Paresh Baruah was appointed a porter of the Indian Railways in 1978 at the Tinsukia division in the northeastern state of Assam.
But the separatist leader was absent from his work since January 1980.
“Two dates were first fixed for hearing and then after two weeks when no one turned up to claim the post, Paresh Baruah was sacked as per government procedures,” railways spokesperson S. Hajong said.
A formal order notifying the dismissal of the ULFA leader from the central government pay roll was issued Thursday.
Hailing from Jeraigaon village in Tinsukia district, about 500 km east of Assam’s main city of Guwahati, the elusive guerrilla leader is described as a ‘violent man’ with red corner notices issued against him and the Interpol on the prowl.
The maximum penalty he potentially faces is death sentence, according to the Assam police website.
Baruah was 21 when he got a porter’s job in 1978 under the sports quota (he was a footballer) at a monthly salary of Rs. 370.
The official said Baruah’s salary was stopped ever since he remained absent from work, but continued to remain as a registered employee of the central government.
The decision to sack the ULFA leader follows several reports in the local media about Paresh Baruah continuing to be on the government rolls.
Baruah, now 52, formed the ULFA in April 1979 along with five others, including self-styled Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, now in jail at Guwahati.
The ULFA is fighting for an independent homeland in Assam since 1979 with more than 10,000 people killed during the past two decades.