A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Guwahati convicted five people in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)-Naxal nexus case from 2011, which was related to a criminal conspiracy to threaten India’s unity, integrity, security, and sovereignty, the agency announced on Thursday.
PLA members N. Dilip Singh of Manipur, Senjam Dhiren Singh of Assam, and Arnold Singh of Assam have been convicted. The other two are Indranil Chanda and Amit Bagchi, both of whom are from West Bengal and have ties to the Naxals. Following extensive hearings, the court convicted the five accused in the case on Wednesday under Sections 121A of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 18, 18A, and 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967.
On July 1, 2011, the NIA opened a suo moto case based on information that the PLA, a proscribed terrorist organisation, had plotted to destabilise the country 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.
According to the agency, investigations revealed that the PLA had established a liaison office in Kolkata, where a meeting between PLA/RPF and CPI (Maoist) leaders took place. Modalities for waging a war against the Union of India were worked out at the meeting, according to the report.
“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.”
According to the anti-terror agency, the SS President of PLA/RPF also complimented the General Secretary of CPI (Maoist) on carrying out an attack on the security forces on April 6, 2010, resulting in the death of 76 CRPF personnel in Chhattisgarh.
“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 in the NIA Special Court, Guwahati, on May 21 and November 16, 2012, as well as on July 31, 2014.
