GUWAHATI, Oct 5: Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta said today the ``startling'' revelations in the Tata Tapes have ``vindicated'' his stand and he would take up the issue with Prime Minister I K Gujral immediately on his return from Africa. He said he was ``not at all'' happy with the way the Union Home Ministry had handled the situation so far. ``My stand has been vindicated. I have been saying from the beginning that the Tatas are trying to hide something,'' he said, reacting to The Indian Express report.

``The Tatas should give up telling lies; after all it is the security and integrity of the country which they have been jeopardising by funding the militants. And they have, unfortunately, also indulged in concealing the truth,'' added Mahanta. He said: ``Mr Ratan Tata and Mr Krishna Kumar told me personally that Dr Brojen Gogoi was in the US. Now if, as the transcripts show, he was in the Tata guest house, it amounts to suppression of information and harbouring of an offender.'' He said the revelations have left him ``distraught''.

Following publication of the report today, all senior officials of the State Government, including Chief Secretary Vijendra Singh Jafa and DGP Hrishikeshan, besides several senior AGP ministers, remained closeted with the Chief Minister.

Mahanta asserted that he would not accept any kind of interference in the State's probe and that the law would take its course. He, however, denied being under any pressure after Union Home Secretary K Padmanabhaiah rang up the Assam police chief on September 12 and supposedly asked him to go slow.When Rajya Sabha MP Jayant Malhoutra's remark that Mahanta was indulging in diversionary tactics to cover up his shortcomings was pointed out to him, Mahanta laughed and said: ``What do persons like him (Malhoutra) know about Assam and its problems?''

Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Jafa said the State Government was seriously studying the implications of the revelations. Refusing to react any further, he said the State police and intelligence agencies were working on the issue.When pressed to react, Jafa added that certain sections of the IPC indeed considered suppression of facts as a criminal offence and that the law would take its own course in the matter.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.