Tripura ultras' funds network under BSF scanner

AGARTALA, May 20 ?The Border Security Force stumbled onto an important clue in regards to Tripura militants? financial transaction network spreading in the entire North East region. Clues regarding the fund transactions among the NE militant outfits through various channels were found when a posse of BSF patrol rounded up a militant belonging to the NLFT Nayanbashi faction and recovered more than Rs 1 lakh from his possession. A senior BSF officer here Sunday said Samresh Debbarma alias ?Gada? of Thunta-Samtal, Padmabil near Hatkata under Khowai police station in West District, was apprehended by a BSF patrol, at about 9 am, in area of village Gournagar Sunday. Debbarma, (25), who was riding a new bicycle, tried to escape towards the international border when he saw a BSF patrol approaching from the opposite direction. In his attempt, he abandoned his bicycle and started running away through the fields. The BSF men chased and overpowered him. During search, three bundles of notes of Rs 500 denomination were recovered from the youth. While two bundles of notes bore stamp of Punjab and Sindh Bank, Silchar, one bundle bore the stamp of Assam Cooperative Bank. It has been established that the youth acted as overground activist of the NLFT, Nayanbashi group. It is highly likely that the captured youth was a courier. ?We do not rule out involvement by other North-Eastern insurgent groups in a money racket: NLFT (Nayanbashi) group is facing acute shortage of funds and it is possible that the group may have received financial help from some other insurgent groups outside Tripura,? the officer said. This is for the first time that genuine currency notes of Rs 1.5 lakh value have been recovered from an apprehended militant on the West Tripura borders. ?A detailed interrogation of the apprehended person is likely to throw some more light on the money racket involving Tripura insurgents and other North-Eastern groups,? the officer observed.