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'I am ready for the worst. Why doesn't somebody tell me the facts?'

Almost two years after noted social worker Sanjay Ghosh's mysterious disappearance, his wife Sumita is planning to meet Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani to find out what really happened to her husband.

"I am ready for the worst. Why doesn't somebody tell me the facts? The CBI has not been able to do anything, the Assam government is silent and the one man commission inquiry report was never made public,'' said Sumita from her home in Gurgaon.

She said she doubted the sincerity of both the Assam government and the Central Bureau of Investigation in finding the truth. ''There is tremendous reluctance in even mentioning the very name of Sanjay Ghosh in Assam today, let alone someone officially giving me the confirmation,'' she regretted.

The United Liberation Front of Asom ultras had abducted Sanjay on July 4, 1997, from Majuli Island, where he was working on a project to protect the land from erosion. The secretary of the Avard-ne, a non governmental organisation, too, was abducted on the charge that he was allegedly working for the Research and Analysis Wing. The ULFA later claimed that Ghosh died when he fell from a cliff in Arunachal Pradesh, trying to escape.

However, police and the CBI are not buying that story. They suspect that the cadre of the outlawed outfit killed Ghosh immediately after the abduction.

''When there have been confessional statements from arrested ULFA cadre about murdering Sanjay, why haven't they been chargesheeted so far by the state police?" Sumita asked, "This is quite strange. What more evidence do you want?"

''I have approached everyone but nothing has been achieved so far. (Chief Minister) Mr Prafulla Kumar Mahanta has been polite enough to see me whenever I wished, but he too has not been able to give any answer. The state must be made accountable for someone's sudden disappearance,'' she added.

Sumita is also upset over the state government's failure to publish the inquiry report. ''Even the CBI has not been able to tell me anything definite so far. I even doubt how genuine the state government was regarding cooperating with the CBI probe.''

Asked whether she planned to return to Assam, Sumita said her entry to the state invited unwarranted attention, and many disliked it. ''I want to avoid that and I do not think that my going will have any definite objective,'' she said.

Sumita is far more composed than she was a year ago. ''But there must be some confirmation before I begin to accept something,'' she said, adding that the state government has not kept its word of publishing a white paper on the matter.

UNI

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