On Sunday (1 October), the National Investigation Agency (NIA) revealed that during its investigation, it found out that the man in its custody, Seiminlun Gangte, was also allegedly involved in an earlier suspected IED blast case, the Kwakta bomb blast case. Apparently, three individuals, including two minor boys, were injured in the blast that took place in Manipur’s Bishnupur district on 21 June.
The NIA made this revelation a day after it had arrested Seiminlun Gangte from Churachandpur district. The NIA stated that he was involved in a transnational conspiracy hatched by Myanmar-Bangladesh-based terror groups to “wage war” against India.
On 21 June, a stolen Mahindra Scorpio car which was laden with an IED blew up a part of the western side of a bridge that connected the Phougakchao Ikhai Awang Leikai and Kwakta area along Tiddim road in Bishnupur district.
Later, on 23 June, the police filed an FIR based on the complaint by Rajeev Kumar, Under Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs. Subsequently, the MHA transferred the case to the NIA.
During the investigation, the NIA traced the vehicle owner and found out that the owner had filed a complaint of stolen vehicle, a month prior to the blast. It was later revealed that terrorists had deliberately planted the IED as they wanted to blow up the bridge that connected the two districts.
According to media reports, before the unrest, Gangte had been working as a private school teacher at VN Model School, Kwakta since 2018. However, he left the town with his family when the incident took place in Kwakta, Bishnupur district.
He shifted to Churachandpur where he started living in one of the relief camps. Reportedly, the owner of the school where Gangte worked also had a hardware store in Churachandpur. For the last two months, Gangte had been working at the hardware store as a supplier. He would procure hardware materials and supply them to the customers in Churachandpur on a commission basis.
However, on Saturday (30 September), he was arrested near Torbung village in Churachandpur district in a joint operation of Manipur police and NIA. Reportedly, he was heading on his way to deliver the hardware materials at the time of his arrest.
Following his arrest, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) stated that Myanmar and Bangladesh-based terror groups had entered into a conspiracy with a section of terror leaders in India to indulge in incidents of violence with the intention of driving a wedge between different ethnic groups and to wage war against the Government of India.
On Saturday, taking to X, the Manipur police announced that Gangte, who was arrested “in a joint intelligence-based operation with NIA… has been further taken to Delhi for production before Delhi Special NIA Court.”