For Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, 1997 was a nightmare. But if he had hoped that the new year would bring good tidings, he has been sadly mistaken. The threat of being chargesheeted in the infamous Letter of Credit (LOC) scam still hangs over his head, although the Central Bureau of Investigation is said to have dropped the most serious of charges against him—that of having taken cash from the prime accused in the case, Rajen Bora—for lack of evidence.