NIA files charge sheet against 16 in Assam fraud case

NIA files charge sheet against 16 in Assam fraud case

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday filed a charge sheet against 16 accused, including politicians and government servants, in a case related to transferring development funds to terrorists.

During its investigation, NIA found that the 16 accused that also included terrorists belonging to DHD-J conspired to defalcate huge amounts of developmental funds allocated to the North Cachar Autonomous Hills Council for procurement of arms and other terror activities.

NIA has been able to establish that huge amounts of developmental funds were defalcated by the autonomous hill council members namely Mohet Hojai and Golon Daulagupu with the help of additional chief engineer (PHE) Karuna Saikia, deputy director (social welfare) Radaul Hussain Khan and contractors Jibangsu Paul, Phojendra Hojai, J K Ghosh, Sandeep Ghosh and Debashis Bhattacharjee.

"These funds were transferred to the terrorists through Kolkata with the help of couriers or Hawala operators," an official release said.

The charge sheet was filed in the special court, Guwahati, under various sections of IPC, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Arms Act.

The case was handed over to NIA from Assam Police on 5th June  following a home ministry order.

NIA also found that the funds finally reached arms dealer Vanlalchhana of Mizoram through operators at Kolkata named Malsawmkimi and George Lawmthang.

Vanlalchhana further supplied arms to DHD-J on the directions of 'commander-in-chief' Niranjan Hojai and 'chairman' Jewel Garlosa.

A large number of sophisticated arms including 27 AK series rifles and M-16 rifles were recovered during the NIA investigation.

The agency also arrested two more cadres of the DHD(J) -- Ahshringdao Waris and Samir Ahmed who were actively associated with Garlosa, the release said.

The investigation of the case was spread over five states -- Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Karnataka and West Bengal.

The case also had international dimensions with the leaders of the DHD-J 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.

Hojai used his contacts in Myanmar to organise the procurement of arms for DHD-J utilising the defalcated funds from the North Cachar Hills.

He then channelled the supply of arms with the help of arms dealers of Mizoram through the Mizoram-Myanmar border, the release said.