The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested a person in connection with a terror funding case linked to the Naga insurgent group NSCN-IM.
The person has been identified as Masasosang Ao, a resident of Dimapur. He was arrested on February 7th, 2020 and was produced before the NIA Special Court, New Delhi on February 8th, 2020 and taken into police custody for further investigation.
Masasosang is said to be a close associate of main accused Alemla Jamir and was actively involved in the transfer/mobilisation of the terror funds for NSCN-IM.
The NIA, on December 20th, 2019, had registered a case against Jamir and others under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) to probe the alleged terror financing charges linked to the NSCN-IM.
“Seizure of Rs 72 lakh was made on December 17th, 2019 from Alemla Jamir, wife of Phunthing Shimrang, ex-army chief of Naga National Army and an executive member of Steering Committee of NSCN-IM, at Domestic Airport, New Delhi,” the NIA said in a statement.
It added, “During the investigation, it was established that this money was part of a bigger criminal conspiracy relating to channelising of the extorted levy amount collected from the businessmen/contractors of Nagaland and neighbouring states and this amount is being used for the furtherance of terror activities of NSCN-IM.”
The NIA further mentioned that during searches, Rs 1.2 crore were seized and more than three dozen bank accounts having a deposit of more than Rs 3 crore suspected to be terror funds of NSCN-IM have been identified.
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