The special NIA court in Guwahati today has convicted 5 persons in the 2011 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) related to a criminal conspiracy to threaten the unity, integrity, security, and sovereignty of India.
The convicted have been identified as PLA’s-N. Dilip Singh of Manipur, Senjam Dhiren Singh of Assam, and Arnold Singh of Assam. The others are Indranil Chanda and Amit Bagchi– both from West Bengal and have links with Naxals.
The court, after extensive hearings, on Wednesday convicted 5 accused in the case under charges of 121A of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 18, 18A, and 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967.
Therefore, NIA registered a suo moto case on July 1, 2011, on inputs that the PLA, a proscribed terrorist organization, hatched a conspiracy to destabilize the country with the support of CPI or Naxals.
NIA stated that “CPI (Maoist) leaders had agreed to recognize and support the separatist activities of PLA for the creation of the northeastern state of Manipur, as a separate nation. The PLA leadership, on its part, decided to support the continuing war of CPI (Maoist) for overthrowing the constitutionally elected Government of India.”
The Investigation revealed that PLA established a liaison office in Kolkata, where a meeting was held between PLA/RPF and CPI (Maoist) leaders.
Modalities worked out at their at meeting for taking unified action for waging a war against the Union of India.
“A bipartite meeting was also held between PLA/ RPF and CPI (Maoist) leadership in Jharkhand for imparting military training to cadres of CPI (Maoist) by PLA/RPF instructors.”
The anti-terror agency stated that it came to light during the investigations that the SS President of PLA/RPF also complimented the General Secretary of CPI (Maoist) on carrying out of an attack on the security forces on April 6, 2010, resulting in the killing of 76 CRPF personnel in Chhattisgarh.
“Investigations also revealed that the PLA had provided logistics support to Maoist cadres and both groups were regularly communicating and exchanging e-mails. The accused persons had traveled to different places within and outside India, and created fake IDs and bank accounts under pseudonymous identities.”
Based on these findings, the NIA filed chargesheets in the case on May 21 and November 16 of 2012, as well as on July 31, 2014, in the NIA Special Court, Guwahati.