Mystery shrouds Assam ultra leader’s arrest in Nepal

KATHMANDU - Mystery shrouds the reported arrest of an Indian militant leader in Nepal with the Nepali authorities denying any knowledge of it.

Nepal’s home ministry Monday denied having any information about the arrest of Niranjan Hojai, leader of Assam’s banned Dima Halim Daoga group.

Hojai, who belongs to the Jewel faction of the underground outfit, also known as the Black Widow group, is said to have been held in Nepal Friday midnight or early Saturday.

However, security forces at Nepal’s Tribhuvan International Airport as well as the Kathmandu metropolitan police said they had no information about such an arrest.

“We have no knowledge of such an arrest,” Nepal home ministry spokesman Jai Mukunda Khanal told IANS.

According to the Indian media, Hojai fled with millions of rupees from the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council to buy arms for his organisation.

He was reportedly caught after he fled to Nepal, where he is said to own a hotel and is married to a Nepali woman.

(Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at sudeshna.s@ians.in)