Morung Express News
Dimapur | March 25
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested 3 more Nagaland state government officials in connection with an investigation pertaining to monetary collection allegedly on behalf of the NSCN (K). The arrests were made on March 25 in Dimapur, according to an NIA press release.
The arrested officials included a Director of the Department of Agriculture, an Executive Engineer of the Department of Rural Development and a Divisional Accounts Officer of the Department of Urban Development.
While stating that the arrests were in pursuance of a case registered at the Guwahati NIA branch, the arrested officials, as per the release faces charges of providing “substantial amount to NSCN (K) by way of contributing Government funds to the banned outfit” in their official capacity.
The case registered dates to August 2016.
The release said that the officials had also paid huge amounts of money to various other Naga National Political Groups during 2012-2016. This, it held, was revealed during scrutiny of “official documents” seized during a search operation carried out by the NIA in 13 Government offices on January 18, 2017. The three officials will be produced before a Special NIA Court on March 26 “for seeking NIA custody remand.” The arrest of the three officials and others before them began after the NIA arrested two NSCN (K) cadres in 2016 which subsequently resulted in a paper trail. As per the release, the NIA had arrested NSCN (K) cadres - S. Khetoshe Sumi, “Finance-in-Charge of Kohima and Dimapur” and another identified as Victo Swu and described as an “active member.”
Further details of the case state that the arrests occurred in August and September, 2016. Prior to his arrest by the NIA, Khetoshe was captured by the Assam Rifles and handed over to the state police.
The documents seized from the duo and “their interrogation revealed the involvement of the Government Officials in paying large sums of money to the tune of crores to the various UG factions and for which they were under investigation and thus, finally arrested today from Dimapur, Nagaland,” the release said.
