Houses raided in search of Thulung

Vivek Chhetri, TT, Darjeeling, Nov. 17: Police today raided two houses at Tukvar, the GTA constituency of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung, in search of Sanjay Thulung, an elected member of the hill autonomous body.

Thulung had allegedly ordered for arms and ammunition which had been seized in Assam on November 8. He is untraceable.

Akhilesh Kumar Chaturvedi, the superintendent of police, Darjeeling, said: "We are patrolling the area. We had an input that Sanjay Thulung was staying in a house."

The houses of Jaspal Gazmer and Dinesh Theeng were raided by the police

A Morcha leader alleged that the police had vandalised the house of Gazmer during the raid at 5.30pm. "We protest the vandalism by police," said the leader.

Chaturvedi denied the charge.

Binay Tamang, an assistant secretary of the Morcha, said: "If the police have specific information, they can conduct a raid. But they should not harass innocent people and vandalise their property. We condemn such action of the police and the party's central committee will hold a meeting in Darjeeling tomorrow to discuss this issue."

Gurung and Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri are currently in Varanasi.

Sources said the police were leaving no stone unturned to nab Thulung and were keeping a close vigil along the India-Nepal border and the boundary between Bengal and Sikkim.

The police believe Thulung, an elected GTA Sabha member from Glenburn constituency, holds the key to the Assam arms haul case. One of the two persons arrested with the consignment had reportedly named Thulung as the receiver of the arms.

In another development, the police seized a Tata Safari from Tukvar today. The vehicle seems to have met with an accident and was apparently parked on a road. "We are trying to find out why the owner of the vehicle did not take the vehicle to a garage," said a police officer. The police have said they are trying to find out if the vehicle has any link with the arms haul case.