Dhaka, Aug 28 (Inditop.com) Indian national Russel Sangma has been sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for gun-running by a court in Sherpur in northern Bangladesh.
Sangma, 25, belongs to Battala village in Assam’s Goalpara district. He is an operative of India’s separatist United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA).
He is also facing a case for entering Bangladesh illegally, the Daily Star said Friday.
Acting on a tip off, a Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) team Sep 13, 2007 raided Sangma’s rented house at Bakakura village under Jhinaigati upazila in Sherpur. The team recovered 29,096 bullets of 7.62mm pistol after digging up the concrete floor of the house.
ULFA is banned in India.
India says ULFA’s top brass is hiding in Bangladesh. Dhaka had earlier denied it, but it has in the last six months been active in locating the fugitives and their hideouts.
Judge S.M. Badrul Islam of Joint Sessions Judge’s Court and Special Tribunal-3 in Sherpur delivered the verdict against Sangma.
In another development in Barisal in southern Bangladesh, the police Tuesday arrested Indian national Chandu Bali, 28, from Madargona-Kuwait Mosque in Nalchhity upazila under Jhalakati district.
Bali was produced in Jhalakati Judicial Magistrate’s Court Wednesday and the court granted three-days’ remand.
S.M. Azizul Huq, officer-in-charge of Nalchhity police station, told The Daily Star that the Hindi-speaking Indian identified himself as son of Ananda Bali of Sreebastan village under Darbhanga district in India’s Bihar state.
Chandu claimed that he came to join tablig, a religious congregation, but failed to either show his passport or any document in this regard, the official said.
