Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, April 27: Five people were found guilty by a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Guwahati in the 2011 People’s Liberation Army (PLA)-Naxal nexus case relating to a criminal conspiracy to harm the unity, integrity, security and sovereignty of India, the agency announced on Thursday.
N. Dilip Singh of Manipur, Senjam Dhiren Singh of Assam, and Arnold Singh of Assam are the PLA members who were found guilty. The other two are West Bengal natives Indranil Chanda and Amit Bagchi who have ties to the Naxals.
Following extensive hearings, the court on Wednesday found the five defendants guilty of the allegations brought against them under Sections 18, 18A, and 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967 as well as Section 121A of the Indian Penal Code.
On July 1, 2011, the NIA opened a suo moto investigation after receiving information that the PLA, a banned terrorist group, had planned to destabilise the nation with the help of the CPI (Maoist) or Naxals.
“CPI (Maoist) leaders had agreed to recognize and support the separatist activities of PLA for the creation of the northeastern state of Manipur, as a separate nation. The PLA leadership, on its part, decided to support the continuing war of CPI (Maoist) for overthrowing the constitutionally elected Government of India,” said the NIA.
The PLA operated a liaison office in Kolkata, where PLA/RPF and CPI (Maoist) leaders met, according to investigations, the agency said.
Modalities for taking coordinated action to wage war against the Union of India were worked out at the meeting, it claimed.
“A bipartite meeting was also held between PLA/ RPF and CPI (Maoist) leadership in Jharkhand for imparting military training to cadres of CPI (Maoist) by PLA/RPF instructors.”
The investigations also revealed that the SS President of PLA/RPF had praised the General Secretary of CPI (Maoist) for orchestrating an attack on the security forces on April 6, 2010, which left 76 CRPF members killed in Chhattisgarh, according to the anti-terror agency.
“Investigations also revealed that the PLA had provided logistics 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 filed chargesheets in the case at the NIA Special Court in Guwahati on May 21 and November 16, 2012, as well as on July 31, 2014.
