Nagaland Police have constituted a high level committee, headed by an Inspector General of Police (IGP), to investigate the involvement of a police officer and five others in the unauthorised transportation of ammunition, an official said on Thursday.
Nagaland Police had intercepted a car in the 6th Mile area in Chumoukedima in Dimapur on July 10 and around 2,500 different types of ammunition, concealed in rice bags, were recovered.
Police inspector Michael Yanthan, in-charge of Police central store in Chumoukedima, four civilians, including a woman and a deputy kilonser (minister) of NSCN (IM) were arrested in this regard.
Director General of Police (DGP) Rupin Sharma said that a high level committee headed by an Inspector General of Police would probe the matter.
The senior police officer said that the Inspector who was in charge of the store, acted in his personal capacity by stealing the ammunition and no conspiracy angle had been found yet.
Sharma said that the police have been monitoring the incident very closely and established the money trail.
The main accused, Yanthan, has confessed to his crime.
He confessed that he was paid Rs 4.25 lakh by one person to sell about 1,500 rounds of SLR ammunition and 1,000 rounds of 5.56 mm calibre bullets of INSAS rifles.
The arrested woman confessed to the police that the consignments were collected from the NSCN-IM leader, who also told the police that he had bought the ammunition from Yanthan.
The DGP further informed that the arrested persons are now in judicial custody.
The police department has proposed to the government to put the inspector under suspension.
Meanwhile, another police officer on the condition of anonymity said that during the initial investigation, it was found that the stolen ammunition was meant to be smuggled and intended to sell to people in neighbouring Manipur, where ethnic violence has been going on for the past three months and illegal arms and ammunition are being used by the rival groups in the violence.
Various reports, political parties claimed that during the ethnic riots, which broke out in Manipur on May 3, over 4,000 different types of sophisticated arms and lakhs of different types of ammunition were looted from the police stations and police outposts by the mobs, attackers and militants.
2023072746268
