Tehelka - India's Independent Weekly News Magazine
THE NATIONAL investigation Agency's (NIA's) chargesheet against the top leadership of the banned outfit in Manipur, the Peoples' revolutionary Army (PLA), filed on 21 May in a special NIA fast-track court, has endorsed the TEHELKA exposé of the PLA–Maoists nexus in December 2011.
In its article (Kishenji's N-E Nexus Exposed, by Ratnadip Choudhury; 17 December 2011), TEHELKA had exposed how secret exchanges between the Maoists and a Manipuri rebel outfit show that the slain naxal leader, Kishenji, was seeking an access to China. According to NIA sources, the chargesheet clearly establishes intimate links between the PLA and CPI(Maoists); how trainers from the PLA travelled all the way to Maoist bases in Jharkhand two years ago and trained Maoist cadres in combat. The chargesheet also talks about how the PLA helped the Maoists with arms and latest communication equipment. These did not come for free though; the Maoists had to pay a hefty amount that exchanged hands in Kolkata.
In October 2011, the Delhi Police arrested N Dilip Singh alias N Wangba, the external affairs chief of the PLA, in a raid at a hotel in Paharganj, near the New Delhi railway station. Along with Dilip, 51, his deputy, Arun Kumar Singh Salam, 36, was also arrested. Interrogation by the NIA revealed startling information about how the nexus between the CPI(Maoist) and the PLA had blossomed ever since the two outfits signed a joint declaration on 22 October 2008 against the Indian government.
TEHELKA had accessed secret letters between the Maoists and the PLA leadership, all routed through Dilip, which reveal how the nexus was formed and how the scheme was the brainchild of slain Maoist leader Kishenji himself. Although the authenticity of the letters could not be independently proved then, the NIA chargesheet has vindicated TEHELKA's exposé.
The story revealed how the PLA was given a contract to procure Chinese-made rocket-propelled grenades, automatic rifles and high-end wireless sets. It also talked of how Maoist leader Kishenji was trying to develop secret links with other rebel groups in the Northeast, including the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the national socialist Council of Nagaland (Issac-Muivah) or NSCN (IM). The latter's chief arms procurer Anthony Shimray, currently in NIA custody, confessed that a huge cache of arms for the Maoists was purchased from a Chinese company. The consignment included automatic rifles, rocket launchers and grenades. TEHELKA was informed by an insider from the anti-talk faction of ULFA that Kishenji was in touch with ULFA chief Paresh Barua, who led him to Shimray.
The NIA sprung into action after the arrest of top PLA leaders N Dilip Singh, Senjam Dhiren Singh alias Raghu and KH Arnold Singh. During its investigation, the agency also found how the PLA and CPI(Maoist) hobnobbed between 2006 and 2008.
THE NATIONAL investigation Agency's (NIA's) chargesheet against the top leadership of the banned outfit in Manipur, the Peoples' revolutionary Army (PLA), filed on 21 May in a special NIA fast-track court, has endorsed the TEHELKA exposé of the PLA–Maoists nexus in December 2011.
In its article (Kishenji's N-E Nexus Exposed, by Ratnadip Choudhury; 17 December 2011), TEHELKA had exposed how secret exchanges between the Maoists and a Manipuri rebel outfit show that the slain naxal leader, Kishenji, was seeking an access to China. According to NIA sources, the chargesheet clearly establishes intimate links between the PLA and CPI(Maoists); how trainers from the PLA travelled all the way to Maoist bases in Jharkhand two years ago and trained Maoist cadres in combat. The chargesheet also talks about how the PLA helped the Maoists with arms and latest communication equipment. These did not come for free though; the Maoists had to pay a hefty amount that exchanged hands in Kolkata.
In October 2011, the Delhi Police arrested N Dilip Singh alias N Wangba, the external affairs chief of the PLA, in a raid at a hotel in Paharganj, near the New Delhi railway station. Along with Dilip, 51, his deputy, Arun Kumar Singh Salam, 36, was also arrested. Interrogation by the NIA revealed startling information about how the nexus between the CPI(Maoist) and the PLA had blossomed ever since the two outfits signed a joint declaration on 22 October 2008 against the Indian government.
TEHELKA had accessed secret letters between the Maoists and the PLA leadership, all routed through Dilip, which reveal how the nexus was formed and how the scheme was the brainchild of slain Maoist leader Kishenji himself. Although the authenticity of the letters could not be independently proved then, the NIA chargesheet has vindicated TEHELKA's exposé.
The story revealed how the PLA was given a contract to procure Chinese-made rocket-propelled grenades, automatic rifles and high-end wireless sets. It also talked of how Maoist leader Kishenji was trying to develop secret links with other rebel groups in the Northeast, including the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the national socialist Council of Nagaland (Issac-Muivah) or NSCN (IM). The latter's chief arms procurer Anthony Shimray, currently in NIA custody, confessed that a huge cache of arms for the Maoists was purchased from a Chinese company. The consignment included automatic rifles, rocket launchers and grenades. TEHELKA was informed by an insider from the anti-talk faction of ULFA that Kishenji was in touch with ULFA chief Paresh Barua, who led him to Shimray.
The NIA sprung into action after the arrest of top PLA leaders N Dilip Singh, Senjam Dhiren Singh alias Raghu and KH Arnold Singh. During its investigation, the agency also found how the PLA and CPI(Maoist) hobnobbed between 2006 and 2008.
