Akhil Gogoi may not have cash, but has 52 cases against him

GUWAHATI: Peasant leader Akhil Gogoi, who is contesting the Assam assembly elections 2021 as an Independent from Sivasagar, is perhaps the financially poorest candidate in the fray, but he is quite rich as far as the number of cases against him is concerned, an asset many Indian politicians would envy.

According to the affidavit he has filed in support of his candidature, the jailed Raijor Dal president has movable assets worth only Rs 60,497, but has 52 “criminal cases” against him pending in courts. His cases are not like those of his fellow politicians in India though.

Apparently in protest against the skyrocketing price of LPG and motor fuel, the firebrand leader has adopted an LPG cylinder as his election symbol.

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Presently lodged in Guwahati Central Jail, Gogoi’s assets include shares worth Rs 10,000 in the Kaziranga Jatiyo Orchid Aru Joiba Boichitra Udyan Samabai Samiti Ltd.

Gogoi also has a loan liability of Rs 50,000 that he borrowed from his wife Geetashree Tamuly.

And, hence Gogoi had the other day very aptly issued an open letter mentioning his bank account number appealing for financial support from his well wishers to spend in his campaign at Sivasagar.

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Neither is his wife Geetashree as wealthy as the spouses of other politicians. But, like in case of any other politician, Tamuly is relatively richer than Gogoi with movable assets worth Rs 18.72 lakh and total assets worth Rs 82 lakh, including asset worth Rs 8 lakh (a 1 katha plot of residential land at Chandmari in Golaghat) inherited from her ancestors.

Tamuly, however, has a bank loan liability worth about Rs 30.2 lakh out of Rs 50 lakh she had borrow from State Bank of India to purchase an Assam Type house at Nizarapar here. Tamuly’s assets also include 0.27 acre of agricultural land, worth Rs 4 lakh, at Bhaga Gaon in Golaghat.

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As far as legal litigations are concerned, Gogoi has cases filed against him as many as 13 police stations across Assam. Most of the cases against him are related to unlawful assembly, protests, defying public servants, defamation and rioting.

Some of the serious charges slapped against him include abetment to suicide, waging war against the state, secession etc.