By Jayanta Gupta Kolkata, Aug 13 : Barely hours after the recovery of a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) from a coach of the Kamakhya-Puri Express on Friday morning, eastern railway announced the suspension of night running of passenger-carrying trains through Assam between August 13 and 17. Around 5.30 am on Friday. The 5 kg IED was found in a sleeper class coach of the train at Pancharatna station in lower Assam's Goalpara district. An electronic detonator, batteries and wire were also recovered along with the IED that was considered to be powerful enough to cause considerable damage. Though the militant outfit responsible for this was not immediately known, a person was arrested in this connection, the police confirmed. The United Liberation Front of Assom and 11 other insurgent outfits from the North East have called for a boycott of the Independence Day celebrations in that part of the country and a general strike on August 15. The statement was made by the anti-talks faction of the Ulfa. "Due to unavoidable circumstances, we are forced to suspend the running of passenger trains through Assam from 6 pm on August 13 to 5 am on August 17. The Howrah-Dibrugarh Kamrup Express will remain cancelled between Guwahati and Dibrugarh during this time. The Sealdah-Guwahati Kanchenjungha Express will be short-terminated at New Alipurduar. The Delhi-Dibrugarh Brahmaputra Mail will run only upto Guwahati. The timings of several other trains including the Jhajha-Dibrugarh Express, Guwahati-Kolkata Garib Rath Express, Guwahati-Howrah Saraighat Express and Chennai Egmore-Dibrugarh Express have been changed to ensure that they don't run during the night," a Eastern Railway official said. Barely a couple of weeks ago, ultras sabotaged railway tracks in Assam, causing an Express train to derail. This led to injuries to several passengers.

New Delhi, August 13 : The CBI has arrested three persons, accused in a Rs 1,600-crore fraud allegedly committed by Tirupur-based Pazee Group of Companies by duping investors. The three -- managing director K Mohanraj, directors K Kathiravan and Kamalavalli -- were arrested on Thursday from a hotel in Assam by CBI, within two months of taking up investigations into the case. "The accused were found in possession of number of incriminating documents, one computer, two laptops, good number of data cards, 21 cell phones and many SIM cards of all service providers and credit/debit cards of various banks," a CBI spokesperson said in a release. All the three were absconding for the past one year. The fraud came to light in September 2009 when a number of victims approached police. Subsequently, a case of cheating was registered on September 24, 2009 by the Central Crime Branch (CCB), Tirupur against Paazee Group of Companies. According to CBI, between 2008-09, the group had collected around Rs 1,600 crore from 48,000 depositors on a claim of more than 100 per cent return on their investments within 90 days to one year. The three office bearers of the group soon absconded after the case was filed. Later, they got anticipatory bail from Madras high court on October 8, 2009 after they promised to give the due amount to investors. However, on review of the settlements by the company, the high court cancelled anticipatory bails of the accused, following which they moved the Supreme Court, which also rejected their pleas on September 21 last year. The trio were on the run since September last year, CBI officials said. Meanwhile, a few depositors had approached the Madras high court seeking a CBI probe. The Economic Offences Wing of the investigating agency in Chennai had on June 15 registered a case on the basis of a court order. "Sustained efforts and vigorous follow up of clues by the CBI led them to the accused who were in hiding in the North Eastern States. Mohanraj was traced at a hotel room in Guwahati and was arrested. The other two accused Kathiravan and Kamalavalli who were at a resort near Cherrapunji in Meghalaya were summoned (by the probe agency) and after interrogation, arrested at Guwahati," the spokesperson said.