The Intelligence Bureau is reportedly on the look out for an All India Radio employee who it suspects is the wife of a top United Liberation Front of Asom militant.

She has been working in the Assamese division of AIR for over one-and-a-half years. She is one of the casual workers that AIR recruits from time to time for news reading, script writing and translation work.

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Apart from her routine work as newsreader-cum-translator, the IB suspects she had been writing press releases on behalf of ULFA and distributing them to mediapersons.

Some time around December 20, IB sleuths accompanied by Delhi policemen called on acting-Director General of AIR K S Sarma and sought permission to question the woman.

Hiron Lal Dutta, director of the Assamese division, was reportedly taken aback when confronted with these suspicions. Dutta has not been attending his office since that day.

He is due to retire on December 31, 2003 but panicked and sought voluntary retirement. He is directly responsible for all recruitment in the division and feared facing charges of helping a banned militant outfit and possible loss of retirement benefits.

Attempts to contact him on his mobile phone proved futile as the calls were being forwarded to a voice mailbox.