Tezpur MP and tea community leader Pallab Lochan Das on Thursday alleged that the then ruling Congress had manipulated the investigation into Daniel Topno murder case and Ripun Bora, then education minister and now Assam PCC president, had reaped the advantage.

“The Congress, which was then in power, had got the scope to manipulate the investigation and Bora had taken the advantage,” he told reporters in Sonitpur. He alleged that no one benefited more than Bora from Topno’s murder. “Ripun Bora could not have become a minister or MLA had Topno been alive today,” he claimed.

Topno, an influential leader of the tea community who had contested the 1996 Assembly election against Bora from Gohpur constituency, was murdered at Gohpur in Sonitpur district of Assam on September 27, 2000. Topno had contested the election on an All India Tiwari Congress ticket after being denied by the Congress. Both had lost the seat, which the AGP won.

In February 2014, the Kamrup district and sessions court discharged Bora in the case, not having found sufficient evidence to frame charges against him. However, the CBI, which was investigating the case, contested the decision in Gauhati High Court on May 29, 2014. The court has now decided to hear the case. “I think if the inquiry is done anew, new facts will come to light and Topno’s family members will get justice,” Das said.

Bora hoped that Gauhati High Court would uphold the Kamrup district and sessions court’s order. However, a few of his party leaders have rushed to New Delhi to intimate the party high command about the developments.