By IANS
New Delhi : Two people have been arrested for allegedly murdering K. Hangsing, self-styled commander-in-chief of Manipur’s outlawed Kuki Revolutionary Army (KRA,) here last November, the police said Thursday.
Sleuths of Delhi Police Special Cell apprehended Dec 21 Singh, 24, alias Meeta, a native of Punjab, and his accomplice Wahengbam Thoithoiba Meitei, 25, from Manipur, in connection with the killing of Hang at his brother’s home in south Delhi’s Srinivaspuri Nov 12.
The assailants had left the scene with a laptop and three mobile handsets, said the police.
Joint Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Karnal Singh said Malkit Singh was arrested from Jalandhar and on his disclosure Meitei was arrested from Chandigarh.
“The duo, in their sustained interrogation, revealed that the murder of Hangsing was committed at the behest of the members of the banned Manipur terrorist outfit United National Liberation Front (UNLF) for ongoing financial dispute with the deceased,” Singh told reporters. UNLF is the oldest Meitei insurgent group in the northeast state.
“The murder was committed by at least ten persons. Tombi Singh, a member of the UNLF, and cousin of accused Meitei had masterminded the conspiracy,” said the police officer.
“The accused further revealed that Meitei had approached Singh while on his way from Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, to Chandigarh to help his cousin Tombi Singh in Delhi to take revenge from another Manipuri. Singh accepted the offer and stepped down from train in Delhi on Nov 7,” the police officer added.
The official said that Malkit Singh stayed with Tombi Singh and other assailants in the capital. They went to the house and tied hands and legs and covered faces of all the four occupants of the flat.
Tombi and others introduced themselves as Commandos of Manipur Combined Force. “After ascertaining the identity of Khuplam Hangsing, he was taken to another room where they hammered him to death.”
The victim was repeatedly hit on the head with a hammer. He had come to the capital around 20 days before his death to meet his two younger brothers studying here.
The KRA, formed in December 1999 with the support of National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM), is part of a faction of Kuki outfits called United People’s Front, responsible for the kidnapping of a number of bureaucrats in Manipur.
“It is the first time that a prominent member of an ethnic group has been killed in the capital by his rivals. Their fighting had always remained confined to the north-eastern states till now,” said another senior official.