Kochi: Acting on a tip-off from Assamese police, three Assam natives, suspected to be cadres of the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit), were taken into custody from a plywood factory at Mannur in Kunnathunadu near Perumbavoor by the Ernakulam Rural police on Thursday morning.

B. Pritam Basumataray, 24, B. Mehar aka Manu Basumataray, 25, and B. Dalanj aka Dhumketu Brahma, 35, were detained on a memo issued by the superintendent of police, Crime Branch, Assam. They are all residents of Kokrajhar district and were in Perumbavoor for the past one month.





A senior police official said after tracing them to the plywood unit that an emergency meeting of police officials was held on Wednesday to chalk out the strategy to arrest them since they had undergone arms training. The Quick Response Force was kept as a backup for a team of rural and city police personnel who swiftly effected the arrest on Thursday morning.

Mr J. Himendranath, deputy commissioner of police (Kochi city), who is officiating as Ernakulam Rural police chief, led a team to undertake the operation.

Policemen in plainclothes too were in the team. The arrested will be handed over to a police team from Assam which will arrive in Kochi on Friday.

The arrested were wanted in cases registered by Gossaigaon police in Kokrajhar district for criminal conspiracy, waging war against the nation, criminal offences, causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons under various sections of the IPC and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Police detained them after summoning them for screening for malaria. The mobile phones and documents in their possession were seized before sealing their room.

The police said that the accused had joined NDFB in 2014 and undergone arms training in Myanmar. Two more in the gang were arrested earlier from Hyderabad. The police are probing their Kerala connections also.