Government funds used to aid Assam terror group: NIA
By IANSTuesday, October 19, 2010
NEW DELHI - The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Tuesday filed charges in an Assam court against 16 people, including politicians and government servants, for allegedly channelising crores of rupees of developmental funds to a terrorist gang to procure arms.
A charge sheet submitted to the chief judicial magistrate at a special court in Guwahati named government servants, contractors, politicians and terrorists of the insurgent outfit Dima Halam Daogah in the case.
The accused include members of the autonomous hill council Mohet Hojai and Golon Daulagupu, government engineer Karuna Saikia, social welfare officer Radaul Hussain Khan and contractors Jibangsu Paul, Phojendra Hojai, J.K. Ghosh, Sandeep Ghosh and Debashis Bhattacharjee.
They have been accused of “conspiring to defalcate huge amounts of developmental funds allocated to the North Cachar Hills Council (now Dimahasao district) for the procurement of arms and for other activities of the terrorist gang in order to wage war against the state,” a home ministry statement said here.
The NIA alleged that “huge amounts of developmental funds were defalcated and transferred to the terrorists through Kolkata with the help of couriers and hawala operators”.
According to the statement, the funds reached arms dealer Vanlalchhana of Mizoram.
The arms dealer supplied ammunition to the terror outfit on the directions of its leaders Niranjan Hojai and Jewel Garlosa.
A large number of sophisticated arms including 27 AK and M-16 rifles were recovered during investigation.
The NIA has arrested two members of the group, Ahshringdao Waris and Samir Ahmed, who were allegedly associated with Garlosa.
The investigation of the case was spread over Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Karnataka and West Bengal.
“The case also had international dimensions with the leaders of the DHD reaching out to Nepal, Thailand, Singapore and Myanmar for conducting and supervising operations in North Cachar Hills by remaining away from the areas of operations,” the home ministry statement said.
The terrorist leaders used contacts in Myanmar to organise the procurement of arms utilizing the funds and then channelled the supply of arms through the Mizoram-Myanmar border.
