New Delhi: A letter dated 7 October 2023 from the director of finance, United National Liberation Front (UNLF), addressed to a businessman, demanding a “contribution” of Rs 10 crore for the “ongoing liberation struggle of Manipur against Indian colonial rule”.
Another letter, dated 18 September 2023, demanding Rs 2 crore.
These letters have been put on record as evidence by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in its investigation of a money-laundering case involving UNLF cadres in Manipur. The letters are included in a chargesheet filed by the ED in a special PMLA court in Delhi and seen by ThePrint.
According to the ED’s probe, funds worth crores were extorted by cadres of the UNLF from the general public and businessmen, and lakhs were collected by way of unauthorised collection of toll taxes at national highways to exacerbate the ethnic unrest in Manipur.
The ED’s investigation found that cadres of the UNLF collected this money in cash and such funds were raised as “part of a larger conspiracy”.
The ED had initiated its investigation into the matter in July 2023, based on a case registered by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The NIA’s case pertained to a “transnational conspiracy” hatched by Myanmar-based terror outfits, operationally active in the northeastern states, to “exploit the ethnic unrest in the state of Manipur” and “to wage war against the Government of India”.
The ED had arrested two men—Thokchom Gyaneshor and Laimayum Anand Sharma—on 16 October under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA), following which a chargesheet was filed on 12 December. The court took cognisance of the chargesheet Wednesday.
‘Funds used for recruitment, training’
The funds collected through extortion, the ED said, were utilised in a planned manner for the “recruitment and training of UNLF cadres, acquisition of illegal arms and ammunition, arranging logistics and maintenance of the organisation and its camps as well as individual expenses of cadre”.
“This money was collected and was used to wage war against he Government of India and execute terrorist attacks, thereby exacerbating the security situation in Manipur,” an ED officer said.
According to the ED, an analysis of digital devices seized from the accused revealed that they were actively involved in the “raising of funds, preparation of budget and acquisition of illegal arms”.
The UNLF is a proscribed terrorist organisation established in 1964 with the aim of making Manipur independent from India.
“It also has an armed wing called Manipur People’s Army (MPA). Thokchom Gyaneshor was self-styled Chief of Army Staff of UNLF and also remained the self-styled Secretary, External and Regional Affairs Department (ERAD) of UNLF. Laimayum Anand Sharma was self-styled Intelligence Officer of UNLF”, the ED said in a statement.
(Edited by Radifah Kabir)
This page supported by kuki.. I thng.
Why don’t you also bring out the well organised kukis and nagas armed organisations looting both national Highways since ages? They don’t even spare personal vehicles right in front of security forces including paramilitary forces.