possession of fake foreign passport, explosives and arms acts under Shibpur Police Station of West Bengal since January 15, 2008.
The resignation letter of the minister was sent to Governor Dinesh Nandan Sahaya by Chief Minister Manik Sarkar for acceptance. However, his party, the CPM virtually gave him a clean chit. The minister said that he resigned for impartial investigation to take place; however, according to him all allegations against him are totally baseless. Even as the Tripura government pressed the CID to inquire into the alleged nexus of the Left minister and HuJI militant, the Centre too has ordered a parallel probe, asking the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to begin a ‘secret inquiry’.
Suman was wanted for his involvement in anti-Indian activities and trafficking of arms and explosives, pumping fake Indian currency notes, possessing photographs of military bases and secret military documents. “The police (special branch) officials have started an inquiry to uncover the details about Mamun Mian and also about those who helped him stay in Tripura illegally,” said Director General of Police K.T.D. Singh. Meantime, the IB, besides probing the alleged nexus will also try to find out as to how the Bangladeshi national Mamun Mian could live in India without a valid passport and obtain a permanent resident certificate (PRC) in Tripura.
Opposition parties, including Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have been demanding the minister’s resignation as well as a judicial or CBI inquiry into the controversy. “The minister helped Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan agent Mamun Mia in getting permanent residential certificate (PRC) from the state government and an Indian passport,” opposition leader Ratan Lal Nath said in separate letters to the chief minister and governor. “The West Bengal police earlier this year nabbed two Bangladeshi nationals, Shamim Akhtar and Alamgir Hussain, in Kolkata with several incriminating documents pertaining to maps and details of army camps in the North Bengal area. A case was also registered against them in Kolkata,” DGP Singh said. “During their interrogation, Shamim and Alamgir revealed that they had entered India last year and one of their associates, Mamun Mian, was hiding in Agartala city,” he added. The issue has rocked the state during the past two weeks.
Reacting to the media reports over the alleged nexus between Chowdhury and Mamun, the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) state secretary Baidyanath Majumder said: “Before the completion of the inquiry, we will not say anything on the issue.” The CPI-M-led Left Front has remained silent over the sensitive issue. Chowdhury was elected to the assembly in the Feb 23 assembly election from the Boxanagar assembly constituency in West Tripura for the third time and became a cabinet minister for the first time. Choudhury is the only Muslim minister in the newly-elected Left Front government in Tripura and is also believed to have contributed to the victory of Chief Minister Manik Sarkar from Dhanpur - which falls in the same Sonamura subdivision as his own constituency Boxanagar - by campaigning among the Muslim voters. The opposition Congress had accused him earlier of siphoning off PDS items like rice and sugar and smuggling them out to Bangladesh and had also alleged that Choudhury’s wife and children had travelled abroad with Mamun Mian, and they have sought a CBI inquiry into this.

Chandana Bhowmik