STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) will take over the case involving Communist Party of India (Maoist) central committee member-cum-strategist-cum-ideologue, Kanchan da, from the Crime Branch of Guwahati Police.
According to police sources, an order has been already issued in this regard by the Union Home Ministry.
Apart from the Crime Branch, Kanchan da, who is currently in the Guwahati Central jail under judicial custody, has been interrogated by the police of various States such as Telengena, Jharkhand and West Bengal, along with the CRPF, Intelligence agencies and the NIA.
The police sources said that the laptop recovered from Kanchan da has been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) at Kahilipara here and more information could be unearthed from the FSL report.
The Crime Branch has ascertained that Kanchan da developed contacts with several militant outfits of the North-East and he had visited Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland on multiple occasions.
The NIA has also already questioned the arrested Maoist leader to ascertain which militant outfits of the region he had contacted or for whom he had acted as a mediator. The NIA is also questioning him as to whether smuggling of arms and ammunition had taken place and, if so, its magnitude.
Kanchan da has also been questioned as to how many youths had been brainwashed into the Maoist fold during his stay in the North-East region.
It may be recalled that the 72-year old Kanchan da and his close associate Akash Urang, alias Rahul alias Kajal, were arrested by the Crime Branch from Patimara Tea Garden under the Udarband Police Station in the Cachar district on March 6. Kanchan da, who originally hails from Howrah, had come to Cachar in 2019.
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