Guwahati, October 24: An employee Gautam Basumatary, of a tea garden was abducted by suspected ULFA(I) militants from Assam, Arunachal Pradesh border area Jagun under Assam’s Tinsukia district on Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, Jagun Police received reports of an employee being kidnapped from the Himalaya Tea Company.

According to police, Basumatary was abducted by wearing masks an armed 5 members gang from the tea factory. Upon arrival, law enforcement reviewed CCTV footage that showed armed abduction of supervisor Gautam Basumatary by a group of five to six masked men.

The tea factory is owned by Radha Chetia, a well-known businessman in Jagun. Superintendent of Police (SP) for Tinsukia, Gaurav Abhijit Dilip told that a search operation has been launched in both the border areas and Arunachal Pradesh to locate the abducted supervisor and apprehend the culprits.

“We have received intelligence about insurgency movements in the region over the past few days. However, since we cannot identify the abductors from the CCTV footage, we cannot definitively claim that an insurgency group is involved, nor can we rule out their involvement,” SP Dilip said.

Sources said ULFA(I) is behind the abduction because it has demanded money from the tea factory owner. “It is not the first time that abduction has been done for money. Earlier, ULFA(I) abducted many businessmen and tea garden employees for money. It has been seen that most of the abduction happen during winter times,” said a source.