Life can be a bed of roses, but for a man from Assam with links to the United People's Party Liberal (UPPL) it turned out to be a bed of thorns, as a photograph of his lying on a bed with Rs 500 notes scattered all around him, and on him, has stirred up trouble.
With elections a few weeks away, the photograph has caught the eye of netizens as well as politicians in the opposition camp as the man in question is Benjamin Basumatary, a village council development committee member of the UPPL, which is in alliance with the BJP in Assam.
UPPL chief and Bodoland Territorial Council Chief Executive Member Pramod Boro, however, has claimed that Basumatary had been suspended in January this year.
In a tweet from his X handle, Boro said on Wednesday that Basumatary "was no longer associated with UPPL as he was suspended from the party on 10th January, 2024, and disciplinary action was taken against him after receiving a letter from the Harisingha Block Committee, UPPL on 5th January, 2024."
The letter, tweeted by Boro, dated January 5, 2024, said Basumatary had been suspended from the primary membership of the party as several complaints and allegations had been received against him "in regards to rampant corruption and misuse of funds in implementation of PMAY House Scheme and MGNREGA schemes."
In an update later, with the video, Boro said the photo was taken five years ago by Mr Basumatry's friends "while they were partying" and that he had been "blackmailed by this photo thereafter."
The cash, he said, belonged to Basumatary's sister.
In the video Basumatary was seen giving a statement in the video about the photograph and how his friends had thought it would be fun to shoot it.
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