Tarun Gogoi's 'dream girl' turns car thief, puts Assam government bothered

Agencies GUWAHATI, APRIL 19 Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi once equated her with Hema Malini, the Bollywood heart-throb of yesteryears. “Rumi is my Hema Malini,” Gogoi had proudly proclaimed when a bitter war of words broke loose between the ruling Congress and the BJP in the run-up to the 2011 Assembly polls. But Rumi Nath, the Congress legislator from southern Assam’s Borkhola Assembly constituency, has turned out to be more of a nightmare for him than a political “dream girl”. The MLA, who has courted controversies one after another, was arrested last week for her alleged links with the kingpin of a gang of pan-India car-lifters. She is currently lodged in room No. 3 of the Guwahati Central Jail with 13 other prisoners. The gang leader, Anil Chauhan, has also been arrested. Over 3,000 cases of car-thefts are registered against him. His wife Rita and Nath’s estranged second husband Jacky Zakir and her PSO have also been nabbed. There are allegations that Nath was close to Chauhan and used her influence to help him. Not only did she protect him from the law, but allegedly she even received stolen vehicles from him. One such vehicle, a BMW, was gifted to Zakir on his birthday by Nath. Recently, police seized a vehicle from Chauhan’s house that had three Assembly Secretariat car passes on its windscreen and rear screen. The passes were issued on Nath’s recommendation. Sources say her downfall was inevitable given how she had conducted herself over the past few years. Nath was in the news in 2010 when she, a BJP legislator, defected to the Congress. She had voted for the Congress during the Rajya Sabha polls, allegedly after taking money from them. Nath made headlines again two years later when her intimate video clips and pictures went viral. She alleged her husband Rakesh Kumar had released them as he had discovered her affair with Zakir. Her public image fell a few notches further when she converted to Islam to marry Zakir. And in doing so, she did not file for divorce from her first husband. The second marriage and her subsequent statements in the media justifying her act led to her being attacked by a mob in a hotel while she was pregnant. Within months of this incident, her relationship with Zakir got strained and she filed a case against him alleging torture. Zakir blamed it on her new-found love, a Hindu businessman. Nath had been spotted garlanded with the man at a temple, giving rise to rumours that she had secretly remarried. The BJP is relieved Nath is no longer with the party. “Surely, her defection to the Congress was a blessing in disguise for us,” BJP leader, Mishan Ranjan Das, said. Nath was arrested in connection with two cases under IPC sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 212 (harbouring offenders), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating). Road to Infamy ■ May 2006 Rumi Nath is elected to the state Assembly on a BJP ticket from Borkhola ■ March 2010 A BJP legislator, Nath votes for and defects to the Congress during the Rajya Sabha polls ■ May 2011 Wins the Borkhola seat again ■ May 2012 Marries her Facebook friend, Jacky Zakir, by converting to Islam without divorcing her first husband with whom she has a daughter. ■ July 2012 The couple is assaulted for practising bigamy. Weeks later, a Congress MLA Kamalakhya Purkayastha files an FIR saying Nath and Zakir illegally entered his MLA hostel room in his absence and assaulted his guests. ■ April 2014 Her relationship with Zakir ends and she files an FIR against him accusing him of physical and mental torture.