NIA court in Guwahati convicts 5 for threatening India’s sovereignty

NEW DELHI — A National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Guwahati has convicted five accused in the 2011 PLA-CPI (Maoist) nexus case related to a criminal conspiracy to threaten the unity, integrity, security and sovereignty of India.

Three of the convicted accused belonged to the People’s Liberation Army of Manipur (PLAM) and two to the Communist Party of India (Maoist).

A #NIA court in #Guwahati has convicted five accused in the 2011 PLA-CPI (Maoist) nexus case related to a criminal conspiracy to threaten the unity, integrity, security & sovereignty of India. pic.twitter.com/9svI10Hksh

— IANS (@ians_india) April 27, 2023

The court convicted the PLAM’s N. Dilip Singh alias Wangba, Senjam Dhiren Singh alias S. Babu Singh, Arnold Singh alias Kh. Arnold Singh, Indranil Chanda alias Raj and Amit Bagchi alias Amitabh under section 121A IPC & Sec 18, 18A & 39 of UA(P)Act.

The NIA registered a suo moto case on July 1, 2011, on inputs that the PLAM, a proscribed terror organisation, had hatched a conspiracy to destabilize the country with the support of CPI (Maoist).

“CPI (Maoist) leaders had agreed to recognise and support the separatist activities of PLAM for the creation of the northeastern state of Manipur, as a separate nation. The PLAM leadership, on its part, decided to support the continuing war of CPI (Maoist) for overthrowing the constitutionally elected Government of India,” said the official.

The NIA said that their investigation revealed that PLAM had established a liaison office in Kolkata, where a meeting was held between PLAM/RPF and CPI (Maoist) leaders.

Modalities were worked out at the meeting for taking unified action for waging a war against the Union of India.

A bipartite meeting was also held between PLAM/RPF and CPI (Maoist) leadership in Jharkhand for imparting military training to cadres of CPI (Maoist) by PLAM/RPF instructors.

“It further came to light during the investigations that the SS President of PLAM/RPF had also complimented the General Secretary of CPI (Maoist) on carrying out an attack on the security forces on April 6, 2010, resulting in the killing of 76 CRPF personnel in Chhattisgarh,” said the official.

The PLAM had provided logistic 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.

Based on these findings, the NIA had filed chargesheets in the case on May 21 and November 16 of 2012, as well as on July 31, 2014, in the NIA Special Court, Guwahati.

The court, after extensive hearings, on Wednesday convicted the five persons accused in the case.

Also read: 11 policemen killed in Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh