By IANS,
Agartala : A Tripura court Thursday sent militant leader Ranjit Debbarma to 14 days of judicial custody, a day after he was arrested when pushed into the Indian territory by Bangladeshi authorities, police said.
Chief of outlawed outfit All Tripura Tiger Force’s (ATTF), Debbarma was facing Interpol’s red corner notice for a number of massacres and other crimes.
The police Thursday presented him at the west Tripura’s district and sessions court, which sent him to 14-days of judicial custody. He will be interrogated by police and intelligence officials.
“I was pushed back by the Bangladeshi security forces Jan 16 through the Dawki India-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya. Tripura Police brought me here Jan 18,” Debbarma told reporters while he was being escorted to the court by a heavy contingent of police forces.
However, a senior Tripura Police official told IANS: “Separatist outfit ATTF’s self-styled president was arrested Wednesday. Then senior police and intelligence officials have interrogated him overnight before he was produced in the court.”
The militant leader admitted that he was arrested by the Bangladeshi security forces in Dhaka last month.
“Senior Tripura and central intelligence officials would interrogate him in the jail,” the police official added.
An opposition Congress leader in Tripura, Ratan Lal Nath demanded that he be interrogated by NIA (National Investigative Agency).
Debbarma, 41, had formed the ATTF in 1993. He was also the founder of the outfit’s ‘political wing’ Tripura People’s Democratic Front (TPDF), also an outlawed group. He had carried out a number of killings.
The Tripura Police had earlier declared a reward of Rs.2 lakh to anyone who could give information about his whereabouts.
According to the Tripura Police, following the advice of the union home ministry, Tripura and the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), Interpol had issued a red corner notice against the dreaded militant.
As there is no extradition treaty between New Delhi and Dhaka, the Bangladesh security forces pushed Debbarma into Indian territory. He was not formally handed over.
The ATTF had hideouts and training camps in Bangladesh, and has been demanding secession of Tripura from India.
Top intelligence sources here said Debbarma, along with his three women associates, was picked up by sleuths of Bangladeshi agencies last month and kept in Dhaka.
Debbarma is the most dreaded and militant leader pushed back by Bangladesh after ULFA’s (United Liberation Front of Assam) founding member and chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, who was pushed back in December 2009.
Tripura’s two banned militant outfits – the ATTF and the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) – have set up bases in Bangladesh.
Tripura shares an 856-km border with Bangladesh, some of it unfenced and running through dense forests and mountainous, making it porous and vulnerable and advantageous for the terrorist outfits for their cross-border movements.