An Indian court on Sunday sent a top-listed insurgent leader of Assam to 12 days in police custody.
Ranjan Daimary, the founder-chief of National Democratic Front of Bodoland, was arrested and handed over to BSF by Bangladesh at the Dawki sector of India-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya on Saturday, according to several Indian newspapers.
The Assam police later took him into their custody.
The Hindu quoted government lawyer Minoti Saikia saying the NDFB leader was shown arrested in the Special Operation Unit (SOU) case No 2/98.
The insurgent was brought to the Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court in Kamrup Sunday around 4:45pm in a Safari car amid tight security, says The Assam Tribune.
The police sought 14 days' custody of Ranjan, who has been named by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as one of the 19 accused in the October 30, 2008 serial blasts in Assam.
No lawyer appeared on behalf of the anti-talks NDFB leader in the court. Different lawyers' bodies earlier decided not to plead for any one involved in the October massacre.
The blasts claimed 88 lives, including those of three lawyers in one blast on the CJM Court premises, and left 540 people injured.
But Hemen Bora, secretary of the Jorhat Lawyers Association and executive member of the lawyers association, Sunday evening said he was willing to fight Daimary's case, reports The Telegraph.
He asked, “If lawyers can fight cases of Ulfa militants, why not Daimary's?”
Meanwhile, the younger sister of Ranjan and a Sahitya Akademi award winner, Anjali Daimary, who also heads the organisation Bodo Women's Justice Forum, alleged the police had not informed the family members of the arrest.
Anjali later said they were not allowed to meet Daimary. Male security personnel had even nearly disrobed her in full public view, she alleged.
The 51-year-old insurgent leader, who is a postgraduate from North Eastern Hill University, was taken back to the headquarters of Special Branch of Assam Police at Kahilipara for further interrogation, as the court proceedings were over.
SUPPORTERS, ACTIVISTS ARRESTED
Nine persons were picked up by police for allegedly shouting pro-NDFB slogans when the insurgent leader was being produced before the court.
In another development, two suspected NDFB activists were arrested on the same day.
HOPE FOR PEACE TALK
With the top leader now in custody, a move by the government to get him to the negotiating table is on the cards, adds The Telegraph.
The plan is prompted by the government's belief that Daimary's faction is too potent a force for the government to be able to bring lasting peace to Bodo areas without his participation in the talks.
“Sooner or later we need him to join the ongoing peace process between the Centre and the NDFB to bring permanent peace in the state in general, and in Bodo belt in particular,” a police source said.