Sanjay Thulung cash Rs 13.3 lakh to militants in Nagaland for GLP arms training

GTA Sabha member Sanjay Thulung had provided Rs 13.3 lakh to militants in Nagaland to provide arms training to 15 members of the Gorkhaland Personnel and some others from the Darjeeling hills, according to an FIR filed by the CID.

The FIR was filed by sub-inspector G.N. Roy of Runglee-Rungliot police station on December 6 following the seizure of a rifle, 22 rounds of live ammunition and five leaflets of the Gorkhaland Liberation Army (GLA) from an abandoned building in 27th Mile, near Darjeeling town, on the same day.

The documents written in English state that the GLA was planning “to attack police and civil administration personnel in order to kill them on duty and strike terror”.

Morcha leaders this paper contacted refused comment on Thulung’s alleged financial help for the arms training.

Police sources said the GTA member’s financial help to impart arms training to the GLP cadres was revealed during the interrogation of Umesh Kami and Ganesh Chhetri, who had been held with a huge cache of arms and ammunition in Assam on November 8.

“During the interrogation of the two accused by the CID, it was learnt that Sanjay Thulung had provided a sum of Rs 13. 30 lakh to NSCN (Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagalim) militants from Nagaland to provide four months’ arms training to 15 GLP members and other people from the hills from January 2013 onwards,” said a police source.

The police source could not specify to which of the three factions of the NSCN Thulung had supplied the cash. All three factions of the NSCN are outlawed.

The GLP is a voluntary force raised by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.

In the FIR, it has been mentioned that Umesh Kami and Ganesh Chhetri had brought the arms from Sanjay Chhetri, Rahul Chhetri, Diku Chhetri and other members of the NSCN from Dimapur.

Today, Kami and Ganesh Chhetri were remanded in six days’ police custody.

Source: The Telegraph

Accused Umesh Kami and Ganesh Chhetri sent to six days police custody

The Darjeeling Chief Judicial Magistrate court on Tuesday sent Umesh Kami and Ganesh Chhetri, the two who were arrested in Assam last month with a huge cache of arms, to six days police remand.

The duo was arrested by the Assam police from Chirang district on November 8 with an arms consignment that was reportedly meant for a political leader in Darjeeling. During CID interrogation, they admitted they had been supplying arms in Darjeeling after procuring them from the NSCN, a militant outfit in Nagaland.

Based on the disclosure and additional information from the accused, the CID on December 6 recovered a rifle and some live ammunition from an isolated area near 27th Mile, some 40km from Darjeeling. The sleuths also found leaflets calling for an armed struggle for a separate Gorkhaland state purportedly by the Gorkha Liberation Army, an unknown outfit. Accordingly, the CID filed an FIR with the Rangli-Rangliot police the same day.

Kami and Chhetri were produced before the CJM court on Monday, which directed them to be produced on Tuesday. “We had submitted a prayer seeking 10 days remand, but the court has granted only six days. However, we can apply for fresh remand after the present one expires on December 22,” said Assistant Public Prosecutor Pankaj Prasad.

In their confessional statement to the CID, the accused disclosed they had supplied arms and ammunition in Darjeeling earlier too. They have also revealed that the arms recovered in Assam were to be delivered to Sanjay Thulung, a GTA sabhasad and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha youth leader, who is at large. “The DIB will be investigating the case. And the remand prayer is to try to find out from the accused whether there are more arms and ammunition in the hills. We also want to see if there is a bigger nexus involved between the Naga militant outfit and those named by the duo,” said the APP, adding Kami’s and Chhetri’s names also figure in an FIR in connection with the recovery of arms from the Fulbari check-post area under Bhaktinagar police station in Siliguri.

Kami and Chhetri have also disclosed that in January 2013, 13 Gorkhaland Personnel recruits along with some other individuals underwent a four-month training course at an NSCN camp in Nagaland at a cost of Rs13.30 lakh.

Besides Thulung, the CID’s FIR has named Sanjay Chhetri, Vijay Rai Thlung, Raju Gurung Kaley, Shen Singh Rai, Milan Subba, Manesh Tamang, Mickki, Ramsingh Rai, Sajeep Gurung and Rahul Chhetri. They have all been booked under Sections 120B, 121, 121A, 122, 123 and 124A of the IPC and Sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act.(EOIC)