The Delhi Police Crime Branch has arrested a 35-year-old alleged militant of Manipur's banned People's Liberation Army (PLA) who was living in Delhi under a fake identity, police said on Friday, November 6. The accused was identified by police as RK Regan Singh, alias Gandhi, news agency ANI reported.

Source: ANI via Indian Economic Observer

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Harsh Indora said the operation was carried out by Inspector Prakash's team under ACP Rajkumar, acting on specific inputs that the militant was hiding in the national capital. Police said Singh is alleged to be the right-hand man of a colonel-ranking PLA officer, and that his paternal uncle was a funding member of the outfit — allegations stated by police, which Singh has not answered in court.

Source: ANI via Indian Economic Observer

News agency IANS, reporting the same arrest, said the Crime Branch apprehended the wanted militant in South Delhi after a tip-off, that he had been evading security agencies for a long time, and that he was found living at a secret location using a fake identity.

Source: IANS via The Freedom Press

Posing as a patient's attendant, police say

Indora said Singh had come to Delhi posing as an attendant for a medical patient and was staying, on fake identification documents, in a hotel that did not even have an external signboard. When officers apprehended him, he gave a false name and denied being the man they were looking for; his identity was confirmed using photographic evidence, the DCP said.

Police alleged that Singh handles ground-level operations for the outfit such as forcibly taking over contracts, including road construction contracts, and extortion, and moves extortion money around. He is named in two cases under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) alongside multiple extortion cases, police said. IANS reported the cases were registered at Thoubal police station in Manipur.

Source: IANS via The Freedom Press

35Age of the arrested man, per police
2UAPA cases in which police say he is named
1978Year the PLA was founded in Manipur

Interrogation under way

The Crime Branch is interrogating the accused in coordination with Manipur Police and central security agencies, and is probing why he was hiding in Delhi, including whether any conspiracy or attack in the national capital region was being planned, IANS reported. The PLA and its political wing, the Revolutionary People's Front (RPF), have been declared an unlawful association under the UAPA, with the ban periodically extended by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Source: IANS via The Freedom Press