GUWAHATI, July 3 � The National Investigation Agency (NIA), after months of search, finally managed to arrest Niranjan Hojai, commander in chief of the DHD (J), commonly known as the Black Widow group as he was wanted in connection with the case relating to diversion of the funds of the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council for procurement of weapons by the militant group.
Highly placed official sources told The Assam Tribune that Hojai was arrested from a place near Nepal capital Kathmandu yesterday and was brought to New Delhi today. NIA and other security agencies are now questioning him. He will be brought to Guwahati within a day or two for production before the court. NIA will seek further custody of the arrested militant leader for detailed questioning regarding militant-politician nexus in NC Hills.
Sources pointed out that Hojai was one of the main accused in the case relating to militant-politician nexus in NC Hills, which was the first case of NIA and several prominent political leaders as well as the chairman of the DHD(J), Jewel Garlosa were arrested in connection with the case. However, Hojai managed to remain elusive and NIA was on the lookout for him.
Only recently, NIA came to know that Hojai was hiding in Nepal and accordingly Nepal police was alerted. The Nepal police managed to corner him about 10 days back, but he managed to escape. However, the security agencies kept track of his movements and managed to arrest him yesterday, sources added.
Sources pointed out that Hojai laid down arms in front of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi along with other members of the outfit last year when the militant outfit declared cease-fire to come for talks. But in clear violation of the ground rules of the cease-fire agreement, he escaped as soon as he came to know that he was one of the accused in the case, which was investigated by NIA. Sources said that the state police also failed in its responsibility of keeping close watch on the movements of Hojai as it is the responsibility of the police to keep watch on the activities of the members of the militant groups under cease-fire agreement.
It may be mentioned here that the NIA case opened the Pandora�s box as it unearthed the siphoning off of huge amounts of funds of the NC Hills Autonomous Council, which led to a hue and cry in the state and finally the Government was forced to entrust the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate into five cases of financial irregularities in the Autonomous Council. NIA, in its chargesheet, also suggested that the financial irregularities should be investigated by an agency like the CBI as it was not the mandate of the agency to investigate into such scams.
Meanwhile, the DJD(J) has given a call for a day-long Dima Hasao bandh tomorrow in protest against the arrest of Hojai.
