COPS CLAIM NEPAL WEAPON HAUL IN RECENT HILL UNREST

Arms seized near river Chhota Rangit

SNS, 20 October, Darjeeling: The police have "technical inputs" and details to prove in court that Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) chief Bimal Gurung has links with Northeast militants and Nepal's Maoists.They also say that two consignments of weapons were brought to Darjeeling through the Maneybhanjyang route from Nepal during the recent bout of the Gorkhaland agitation in the Hills.

"The police not only have source information but also technical inputs which will prove that arms and ammunition were brought it here," police source said. According to a source, the two consignments were brought in from Nepal during August and September this year and that Morcha leader Prakash Gurung himself was directly involved in one of them.

"We also have details of the persons who had brought the arms from Nepal and how two vehicles were changed for the same.

"This shows that they have links with the Maoists. They also have links with Northeast militants with some boys also being sent for training there,' said the police source. He also referred to the Assam arms haul case of the year 2014, where one former Morcha leader, Sanjay Thuhung, has been named and who is presently absconding.

Umesh Kami and Ganesh Chettri 

Thulung was named in the Assam arms haul case by Umesh Kami and Ganesh Chettri who were arrested on November 8, 2014 in Dhali Gaon in Assam while they headed for Bengal with a consignment of arms. They had said that they were to deliver the weapons to Thulung who was then the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) Sabashad from the Tukdah-Glenburn constituency.

During interrogation, Kami and Chhetri had revealed that before they were caught with the third consignment, they had deliverred arms and ammunition in Darjeeling on two previous occasions

Based on their statements on December 6,2014 police had also recovered a rifle and 22 rounds of live cartridge and discriminating leaflets calling for an armed struggle for a separate state from an abandoned house near 27th Mile. After interrogation that time, the duo had also revealed that the arms had been procured from Dimapur in Nagaland from the in Militant group Natonalist Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN) and that some people from Darjeeling had also undergone four months' underground training on how to use the arms in a militant camp in Nagaland in 2011.

Sanjay Thuhung

"Kami was part of the Gorkhaland Personnel that had been formed by the Morcha in the past with him also being the driver of Gurung, while Ganesh was the middle man. A plot was hatched at that time only. We have information that a group of the NSCN (K) had also come here and met Gurung and Thulung. Kami and Chhetri had been arrested according to information given by the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau which is of the Central," said the source, also raising questions as to why Thulung had been thrown out of the party.

Police sources also spoke of the gelatin sticks which were stolen from an NHPC sit at Nezy in Pulbazaar in Darjeeling which is suspected to have been used in making Impprovised Explosive Devices that caused explosions in different parts of the Hillls during the recent three-month agitation.

"We have details that the gelatin sticks were robbed by youth leaders Rikash Theeng and Bheem Subba, along with some boys from the Dooars. Gurung had given Rs 30,000 to be paid to them, but only Rs.500 each were given to them and there was a hot discussion amongst themselves regarding this, said the source, adding that not only IEDs were being made but a crude form of bullet proof jackets were also being made. The sources referred to the jacket police recently recovered at Chhota Rangit where firing had taken place between the police and Gurung supporters.

The police maintained that Gurung had many camps like that at Glenburn and when a raid was conducted there, a camp was made at Lapchey Basti, and after raids there, they were staying near Chota Rangit. "About 16 people stayed along with Gurung, while Morcha leaders like Praveen Subba and Dipen Malley used to visit them," the source said.

Giri house raided?

Meanwhile,Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri today alleged that police vandalized his house in the wee hours today and took away his computer, two printers and a suitcase of documents.The house was empty at that time, he claimed.

Senior police officials, however, said that these were baseless allegations and that they had done no such thing.