Bodo militant escapes from police custody

Guwahati/New Delhi : A Bodo militant, who was arrested by the NIA, on Wednesday escaped from police custody while he was being produced in a Guwahati court in connection with the killing of five tribal villagers in Assam’s Kokrajhar district in December 2014, officials said.

An National Investigation Agency (NIA) official in New Delhi, requesting anonymity, said that the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB-S) militant Kamakhya Daimary alias Kwnasong escaped from police custody while he was being taken from jail to court.

According to the NIA official, he was found missing while they were taken into the bus during the counting of the prisoners.

Daimary was arrested by the counter-terror probe agency on December 14, 2015 and a supplemntary chargesheet against him was filed in 2016.

According to the NIA official, at least 14 heavily armed NDFB-S militants belonging to the ‘Serfanguri Platoon’ descended on Pakriguri village of Kokrajhar on the evening of December 23, 2014 and started firing indiscriminately, leaving at least five persons, including women and children, dead and another four persons were injured.

On December 23, 2014, the NDFB-S had killed over 70 people in several areas of Bodoland Territorial Area Districts in a series of attacks upon the tribal community.

The NIA has earlier arrested 16 persons out of 23 accused. Four members of the NDFB-S are still absconding while the three were neutralized.

Published: April 25, 2018, 21:22 IST

IANS