Imphal, June 14 : A block development officer was arrested in Manipur today on charges of funding militants, two days after police raided his office and seized a huge amount of cash meant for a central government scheme along with incriminating documents.
Bishnupur superintendent of police K. Jayenta Singh said the police had thwarted the plan of Bishnupur BDO L. Kunjo and some officials and pradhans to hand over Rs 5.60 lakh from the Indira Awas Yojana fund, meant for construction of houses for 70 beneficiaries, to militants.
The raid followed information that the militants were heading for the BDO office to collect the cash.
The SP said inquiries had revealed that Kunjo and his officials, in collusion with some elected members of the gram panchayat, had recently paid militants Rs 4.40 lakh.
The police, however, did not disclose the names of the outfits that were funded regularly nor did they name the militants who came to collect the money on Thursday but escaped sensing trouble.
Efforts are on to arrest some more officials and pradhans for alleged channelisation of development funds to militant coffers.
The BDO’s arrest coincided with the arrest of Seram Ashalata Devi, 36, from Konjengleikai in Imphal West in connection with the killing of contractor Yengkhom Krishnadas who was abducted on Wednesday and murdered two days later in Thoubal district despite his family paying a ransom of Rs 25 lakh.The police said the victim’s family had handed over the ransom to Ashalata Devi.
She was produced in the court of the chief judicial magistrate, Imphal, and remanded in police custody till June 18. Kakching bazar remained shut for the second consecutive day today in protest against the killing of Krishnadas. The protesters staged a sit-in and damaged several shops in the area.
In two other incidents today, Assam Rifles gunned down two militants near Lokchao in Chandel district at 3.30am and two others at Bongli in the district around 4.45am. Arms and ammunition were found on them.
In yet another incident, gunmen set on fire two bulldozers used for construction of a police station in Ngariyan hills in Imphal East late last night. Before the arson, the gunmen told two construction labourers, both local men, to stop work and go home. The labourers fled the work site this morning.
The inter-state bus ticket counters downed shutters here today and bus owners staged a sit-in at North AOC against extortion threats to drivers of buses plying between Imphal and Guwahati and other cities in the region.