A senior Assam Police official on Monday confirmed that Ram’s family had also paid Rs 12 lakh to the ULFA as the first instalment for the release of the official through a “middleman” who collected the sum “either in Guwahati or in Delhi”.

“The abductors were in touch with the family,” the official said. Ram’s son Praveen, who had come here from Ghaziabad on Sunday to identify and take his father’s body back, is understood to have told senior Assam Police officials that he had paid Rs 12 lakh to the abductors.

The rebel outfit had initially called up Praveen on April 18 and asked for a ransom of Rs 21 crore, which was gradually scaled down to Rs 5 crore and then Rs 3 crore over the past two months.

On June 26, one caller who claimed to be an ULFA leader but refused to divulge his identity called up Praveen in Ghaziabad and asked for more money (the “second and final instalment”).

Praveen first wanted to know the name and identity of the caller and then also sought a guarantee that his father would be released on payment. The caller, however, refused to agree to both. “When Praveen insisted he be connected to his father so that he could talk to him and be sure that his father was safe and alive, the caller disconnected the phone,” the official said. Ram was probably killed soon after this conversation, he added.

Meanwhile police said Junu Murmu, an Adivasi girl who hails from Baganpara, a village hardly two km from Anandapur, the village where Ram’s decomposed body was found, could probably provide the key to Ram’s abduction and killing.

“This girl, who claims to be an adopted daughter, wasn’t at home (at Baganpara village) on June 26 and 27,” said the official.

The police are now investigating this angle, especially after the five ULFA cadres arrested from village Murkuchiapara (adjacent to Anandapur) admitted that Murmu had introduced them to Ram to help them get some FCI contracts. Though belated, the police are now trying to ascertain whether Ram had known his abductors for some time before they actually took him away.