NIA arrests Manipur militant in Kerala for role in Jiribum killing, looting

New Delhi, May 20: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested from Kerala, a militant of a banned insurgent group involved in the brutal killing of a woman and looting of houses in a village in Manipur’s Jiribam district last year

The statement was made by officials said on Monday.

The militant, identified as Rajkumar Maipaksana, was arrested from Kerala’s Kannur district. According to officials, Maipaksana has been sent in transit remand by the NIA special court in Kochi, to be produced before the Imphal NIA court.

According to a statement issued by the NIA, Maipaksana, who hails from Manipur’s Jiribam district is associated with the proscribed insurgent group - People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK).

He was among the key perpetrators of the crime, in which a woman, Zosangkim, was killed and several houses were set afire and looted in Zairawn village in November 2024, it said.

The NIA had last week arrested two other accused militants, belonging to different militant outfits, in the case.

The agency is continuing with its investigations and is hunting for the other perpetrators of the horrendous crime, the statement said.

The 31-year-old tribal woman, who was killed on November 7, was subjected to third-degree torture and suffered 99 per cent burns, according to her autopsy report.

Several body parts and limbs of the victim were missing, and viscera for chemical analysis could not be collected as most were charred and unrecognisable, according to the report.

“Right upper limb and parts of both lower limbs and the facial structure found missing,” it stated.

More than 260 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in the violence between the Imphal valley-based Meiteis and adjoining hills-based Kuki-Zo groups since May 2023.

The Centre imposed the President's Rule in Manipur on February 13 this year after Chief Minister N Biren Singh resigned.

Meanwhile, the NIA made the first arrest in connection with the 2024 attack on the Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) post in Moreh area of Manipur, in which one policeman was killed and two others were injured, officials said on Monday.

Thangminlar Mate alias Lenin Mate, a resident of Tengnoupal, was nabbed in Silchar, Assam, on Sunday, they said, adding that Mate’s affiliation to any militant group is not clear yet.

The attack was carried out by suspected Kuki militants in Tengnoupal district on January 17 last year.

The Silchar court has given NIA the transit remand custody of the accused, the first person to be arrested in the case, for production before the agency’s special court in Guwahati, a statement issued by the probe agency said.

– With inputs from news agencies