Assam: NIA detains couple for suspected Maoist links

Silchar: The National Investigation Agency (NIA), on Sunday, detained a married couple from south Assam’s Karimganj district on the suspicion that the couple has Maoist links.

Sources said a team of the NIA conducted an operation in Sonakhira, Patharkandi in Karimganj district around 7:15 on Sunday morning and detained Raju Urang and his wife Pinky Urang from their house, about 90 km from Silchar.

The NIA team searched the house and seized a laptop, six pencils, paper cuttings of different local newspapers, a map, two mobile phones and some other items, sources said.

Raju’s father late Chunilal Urang was a government employee with the electricity department. Raju works as an electrician with a private agency/ company and has a son and daughter. After detaining Raju and Pinky, the NIA team took them to Patharkandi police station. They were being interrogated, as per the latest information available. When approached by reporters, the NIA team did not divulge anything related to the matter, sources said.

Karimganj superintendent of police Padmanabh Baruah was not available for comments.

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It may be mentioned that a senior Maoist leader Arun Kumar Bhattacharjee (alias Kanchan Da) was arrested by the NIA from Cachar district’s Udharbond constituency on March 6. It is being suspected that the NIA got the information about the duo (Raju and Pinky) from Kanchan da after grilling him.

After Kanchan Da’s arrest, Harmit Singh, Guwahati police commissioner, had said Kanchan Da was trying to set up the Maoist base in Assam and was hiding in a tea garden in the Cachar district because the CPM (Maoist) leadership assigned him to set up bases in the Northeast, especially in Assam.

“The capture of this individual (Kanchan da) is an important achievement and step towards finding out their plans of terror and big win for security agencies fighting for the sovereignty and integrity of the country,” Singh said.

According to police, nearly 200 cases of anti-national activity, extortion, and illegal weapons are registered against Kanchan Da across India.