RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Aug.24: National Investigation Agency (NIA) interrogated an arms supplier, Parshuram Singh, who used to remain in the guise of a labourer. He used to supply Bengal-made arms and ammunition to Maoists in forests of Jharkhand and Bihar.
Singh is a resident of Bistole village under Karouna police station area of Jehanabad district in Bihar from whose residence one rifle, 25 live cartridges, seven magazines, five partially assembled grenades, 7248 parts of grenades, 605 detonators besides other explosive materials were recovered along with Naxal literature.
The development took place after a special task force of Bihar exposed a big network of Maoists on March 31 this year after a raid in Singh’s village in which Singh, who is associated with CPI (Maoist) politburo member Arvind Singh alias Dev Kumar Singh, was arrested and a cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from his possession and later the matter was handed over the NIA for proper investigation. The NIA had re-registered the case as RC-11/2021/NIA/DLI dated 17.06.2021 and taken over the investigation.
On 19.08.2021, NIA conducted searches at three locations in the Patna district of Bihar in this connection. Several incriminating materials, including handwritten documents, Naxal literature/books were seized. Digital storage devices in the form of pen drives were also seized.
Apart from Singh, the NIA has also interrogated Sanjay Singh, a resident of Bohia village under Alipur police station of Gaya district. The NIA has also registered an FIR under different sections of the explosives and arms act besides the CLA act against both the Singhs. Apart from Singhs, two others named in the FIR include Umesh Yadav and Gautam Kumar.