How govt officials in Nagaland helped extort money for terrorists

According to investigations, the NSCN-K, had prepared a list of 24 government departments to extort money.

Three officers in the Nagaland government were arrested by the National Investigation Agency on charges of paying huge amount of money to terrorist groups. The NIA has been probing a case in which it was found that several terror groups such as the NSCN-K, NSCN-R, FGN, NNC had been extorting money from the government.

The officers arrested are Tulula Pongen, joint director/DDO, department of social welfare, Kohima, Alienba Pangjung Jamir, joint director/DDO, department of land resources, Kohima and Lashito Sheqi, UDA/cashier, department of land resources, Kohima. They have been accused of large-scale extortion and illegal tax collection on behalf of the terrorist groups.

The NIA says that this was revealed during the scrutiny of the documents including demand letters and payment receipts which were seized during the search operation carried out by the NIA in 13 Government offices on January 18.

The NIA investigation revealed that these terrorist groups from Nagaland after abrogating the ceasefire with the government in March 2015 has been extorting from the government apart from carrying out strikes on security forces.

How NSCN-K taxed the Nagaland government

According to investigations, the NSCN-K, had prepared a list of 24 government departments. They included the social welfare, irrigation, housing among other departments. The group would call it tax, but in reality, it was just extortion.

Investigations revealed that the outfit had tasked its operatives to compulsorily collect 24 per cent of government employees' salaries apart from funds from the department meant for government work.

The papers that were seized and scrutinised by the NIA showed that the outfit had set a target of Rs 10 crore to be collected from these departments. Until August 2016, the outfit had managed to collect Rs 25 lakh from both the irrigation and social welfare departments, the probe revealed.

The operation was being controlled out of Myanmar by the outfit boss, S S Khaplang. He tasked his finance in charge, S Khetoshe Sumi to oversee the operation in Myanmar. Operating out of Kohima and Dimapur, Sumi would personally call officials in the government departments and demand 24 per cent tax. He would threaten them with dire consequences if the amount was not paid up.

Sumi would either meet these officials personally or send his trusted aide to collect the money. Once the money was collected, he would rope in the women members of the outfit and transport the cash to Myanmar, investigations further revealed.

OneIndia News