Guwahati: Special NIA Court Convicts 5 In 12-Year-Old PLA-Naxal Case

A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Assam’s Guwahati on Wednesday convicted five people in the 2011 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) – Naxal nexus case related to a criminal conspiracy to threaten the unity, integrity, security and sovereignty of India.

Those convicted by the court were identified as PLA’s N Dilip Singh of Manipur, Senjam Dhiren Singh and Arnold Singh of Assam. In addition, two others, both from West Bengal and having links to Naxals were convicted. They were identified as Indranil Chanda and Amit Bagchi.

Following extensive hearing, the court on Wednesday convicted the five accused in the case under charges of 121A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 18, 18A and 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967.

On July 1, 2011, the NIA had registered a suo moto case based on inputs that the PLA, a proscribed terror organization, had conspired to destabilize the country with the support of CPI (Maoist) or Naxals.

The NIA was quoted by ANI as saying, “CPI (Maoist) leaders had agreed to recognize and support the separatist activities of PLA for the creation of the northeastern state of Manipur, as a separate nation. The PLA leadership, on its part, decided to support the continuing war of CPI (Maoist) for overthrowing the constitutionally elected Government of India.”

Investigations into the case revealed that PLA had established a liaison office in Kolkata where PLA/RPF and CPI (Maoist) leaders met, according to the NIA.

It said that the modalities were worked out at the meeting so as to take unified action for waging a war against the Union of India. “A bipartite meeting was also held between PLA/ RPF and CPI (Maoist) leadership in Jharkhand for imparting military training to cadres of CPI (Maoist) by PLA/RPF instructors,” said the agency.

Furthermore, it came to the fore during the probe that the SS President of PLA/RPF had also complimented the General Secretary of CPI (Maoist) on carrying out an attack on the security forces on April 6, 2010 which had resulted in the martyrdom of 76 CRPF personnel in Chhattisgarh, NIA said.

NIA said, “Investigations also revealed that the PLA had provided logistics support to Maoist cadres and both groups were regularly communicating and exchanging e-mails. The accused persons had travelled to different places within and outside India, and created fake IDs and bank accounts under pseudonymous identities.”

The NIA had filed charge sheets in the case based on the findings on May 21 and November 16 of 2012 and on July 31, 2014 in the NIA Special Court in Guwahati.

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