Tripura police unearth racket of criminals

AGARTALA, April 12: Tripura police have unearthed a racket in Sonamura subdivision in West Tripura district and Bangladesh, which was engaged not only in common criminal activities but also in passing information and providing shelter to militants. The startling disclosure was made by an arrested criminal Momin Mian of Sonamura (a village located on virtually an open Indo-Bangladesh border line) who was recently picked up by the police for alleged involvement with the ISI and NLFT militants. The arrest was made following recovery of some NLFT letters and seals declaring his name as an 'ISI agent' in the house of mian's Maruti driver Dhananjoy Debnath. Though his involvement with 'ISI' is not yet clear, Mian, however, admitted that he was involved in a network which provided shelter, food and other essential to the NLFT militants in Bangladesh hideouts. The racket not only helped the militants set up conduit and camps in Bangladesh soil and connection with some' important personalities of Bangladesh as middlemen, it also used to pass on information about movement of police and security forces to them. Momin Mian also divulged the racket's involvement in other criminal activities in Tripura and also in Bangladesh, like hiring professional killers, smuggling, dacoity etc. Mian himself is a notorious smuggler of Sonamura. Acting on the information, police raided the house of Momin and unearthed cast and other valuables worth crores of rupees, sources said.