DIMAPUR, FEBRUARY 4 (MExN): Two cadres of the NSCN (R) were arrested by the Dimapur police in connection to the abduction of a Nagaland state government official on December 3, 2017. The Dimapur police PRO in a press release said that the arrests were made on two different occasions in January following weeks of “extensive surveillance.”
As per the police account, 3 persons were involved in the abduction and robbery that occurred on the night of December 12. The three entered the residence of Imtilepden Pongener, Secretary, Development Authority of Nagaland located behind the Naga Shopping Arcade complex in Dimapur. The intruders after intimidating the official and his wife “for not attending their phone calls and for non compliance of their demand for money” robbed cash amounting to Rs.1,17,000, 5 mobile handsets and the key of the official’s government vehicle, the police release said.
He was blindfolded and taken away in his own private car to a secluded spot at Naharbari on the bank of the Dhansiri River where he was assaulted, the police said. The abductors then left him bound and confined in his car at the spot where he was found by local residents the next morning.
In the manhunt that followed, the police arrested one of the abductors identified as Aboto Achumi (27 years) on January 17. Three days later on January 20, another of the suspects identified as “the other prime accused” Kenneth G. Chishi (31 years) was arrested. The police described the former as “S.O. Civil Wing” of the NSCN (R) and the latter as “Dy. Secy. Civil Wing” of the NSCN (R).
According to the police, Chishi was earlier a secretary of the Anti-Corruption and Crime Investigation Front, Nagaland state unit. The Front’s Nagaland unit was “busted by the Dimapur Police in 2017 for illegal activities,” it stated.
