NIA team brings Thai gunrunner with NSCN(I-M) links to India

A National Investigation Agency (NIA) team brought Thai national and alleged gunrunner Wuthikorn Naruenartwanich alias Willy Naru to India on Tuesday night.

A National Investigation Agency (NIA) team brought Thai national and alleged gunrunner Wuthikorn Naruenartwanich alias Willy Naru to India on Tuesday night.

“Naru has been brought to Mumbai and on Wednesday morning he will be brought to Delhi for detailed questioning,” said a senior home ministry official, requesting anonymity.

Naru, 58, was arrested on the request of the NIA in Bangkok on August 30, 2013, on the basis of an Interpol Red Corner Notice. His name had come up during the interrogation of Naga group NSCN(I-M)’s self-styled foreign secretary Anthony Shimray.

Shimray revealed that he had allegedly paid an advance of around US $800,000 for an arms consignment. In its chargesheet, the NIA said that the NSCN(I-M) used to get most of its arms from the Chinese arms company NORINCO and Naru had allegedly negotiated the deal. The delivery of consignment was to take place at Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, but could not go through.

“We believe that Naru’s interrogation will help us to crack the supply route of Chinese arms to North-Eastern insurgents. Besides Shimray, Naru’s links with other north-eastern insurgent groups are also going to be focus of the probe,” said NIA chief Sharad Kumar.