Former DGFI chief Sadik Hasan Rumi told a Chittagong court yesterday he had never met Ulfa leader Paresh Barua. He was being cross-examined in the 10 truckloads of arms haul cases.

CID Senior Assistant Superintendent of Police Moniruzzaman in the cases' charge sheets had mentioned that Maj Gen (retd) Sadik Hasan Rumi, the then chief of Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, the then army chief and some other top officials met Paresh Barua, leader of the United Liberation Front of Asom, an Indian separatist group, before the 2004 arms smuggling, defence lawyers said.

Rumi rejected the allegation before the Chittagong Metropolitan Special Tribunal-1.

Kamrul Islam Sajjad and Mohammad Ahasan were arguing on behalf of the then director of DGFI Counter Intelligence Bureau Big Gen Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury, an accused in the cases.

A huge consignment of arms and ammunition was seized on April 2, 2004 at the jetty of Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Ltd. Following the incident, two cases were filed-- one for smuggling firearms and the other under the arms

act. Ex-DGFI director general Rumi is a prosecution witness in both the cases.

The defence asked Rumi whether he had implicated their client in the cases because he had a grudge against Rezzakul.

They added that once in Rumi's absence Rezzakul submitted a probe report to the higher authority on a graft allegation against former army chiefs Gen Hasan Mashud and Gen Moin U Ahmed, one of Rumi's batch mates.

Rumi told the court that his statements had nothing to do with personal feelings.

As the sixth prosecution witness, he submitted his deposition on March 15.

According to the deposition, former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar and some top intelligence

officials including Rezzakul might have links to the arms smuggling.

Babar and 10 others detained in the cases were produced before the court during yesterday's proceedings. Judge SM Mojibur Rahman around 5:00pm adjourned the court until this morning.