Arms recovered in Manipur missing arms case

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) recovered six pistols, on Saturday, in the Manipur missing arms case related to the theft of 56 pistols and 58 magazines from the Director General's (DG) armoury of the 2nd Battalion of the Manipur Rifles premises. The weapons went missing between 2016 and early 2017, said a presser by the NIA.

Kuki Revolutionary Army (KRA) Chairman David Hangshing was arrested on August 24, during the NIA investigation. Reportedly, David received the police pistols from an MLA from Saikul constituency, Yamthung Haokip, who was also arrested.

David disclosed that he kept a few of the missing pistols hidden at a place, after which the NIA team recovered six missing 9 mm pistols from a place about 20 km from Imphal under East Imphal Police District.

Purportedly, the seized pistols were those among the list of missing pistols. Serial numbers of five pistols have matched with serial numbers of missing pistols while the serial number of 1 pistol has been erased.

David was produced before duty magistrate on Saturday, who remanded him to police custody. He will now be produced before a Special NIA court.

The NIA has so far recovered 20 of the missing pistols since taking over investigation into the missing arms case in May.

Further investigation in the case is underway.