NIA commences probe into 1.2 million dollar arms deal at North East

New Delhi, Dec 14: An arms deal worth 1.2 million US dollars allegedly struck between a Thai National and a North Eastern insurgent group is the subject of investigation by the National Investigating Agency.

The NIA had first arrested Anthony Shimray, a senior leader of the NSCN (IM) and this led to a case being built up against Thai national Wuthikorn Naruenartwanich @ Willy (59 Yrs).

Willy was extradited from Thailand a couple of days back and brought to New Delhi where he is being questioned by the NIA. For the NIA this is a major victory as they managed to extradite a foreign national which is usually a difficult task.

Arms deal under investigation:

The NIA says that there was a criminal conspiracy hatched to illegally procure a huge quantity of sophisticated arms and ammunitions from a foreign country.

Investigation by NIA had revealed that the accused Anthony Shimray had negotiated several times with Wuthikorn Naruenartwanich to fix a deal to the tune of US $ 1.2 million to procure huge quantity of arms and ammunition for supply to the NSCN (IM) and other insurgent groups operating in the North Eastern region.

The NIA says that the arms were being procured to wage a war against the Government of India. For this deal, US $ 800,000 was paid by accused Anthony Shimray to co-accused Wuthikorn Naruenartwanich.

NIA had filed a charge sheet in this case on 26.03.2011 against four accused persons including Anthony Shimray and said Wuthikorn Naruenartwanich @ Willy u/s 120B, 121A, 122 of IPC and 16, 17, 18 and 20 of UA(P) Act.

Presently Anthony Shimray is in jail and facing trial in NIA Special Court, New Delhi.
Wuthikorn Naruenartwanich had appealed against the order of extradition in the Appellate Court in Bangkok which was rejected on 04.11.2015.

Accordingly the custody of Willy was given to Chief Investigating Officer of case on 08.12.2015 by the Government of Kingdom of Thailand. He was brought to New Delhi and was arrested. He is being produced in the NIA Special Court, New Delhi for seeking his Police Custody.

OneIndia News