The court of the additional district magistrate (ADM) granted bail to top Naga rebel Gapumkhai Grinder Muivah, who was recently arrested from the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose international airport, Calcutta, for his alleged attempt to hijack an aircraft from Lengpui airport in Mizoram. While granting him bail on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh, the court observed that Grinder was arrested on a statement made by the main accused in the hijack bid case who retracted on it before a magistrate.

According to the ADM, the main accused K. Raju Rangan retracted on his statement before the magistrate that Grinder was the one who had hatched the plot. The court saw no reason to further detain Grinder in judicial custody.

K Raju Rangan had told a court that he made the statement under duress after he was tortured by the security agencies.The court also lambasted the prosecution for not following the set norms while pleading to reject the bail plea by the petitioner.

Meanwhile, the Union Government disclosed that the talks with the NSCN (I-M) has been deadlocked following arrest of the outfit’s general secretary T. Muivah and revealed that it has not initiated any steps for extradition of the arrested Naga leader. Replying to a question tabled by Jitendra Prasada of the Congress, Union Home Minister L.K. Advani indicated the possibility of the arrested leader having connections with the ISI of Pakistan. T. Muivah had reportedly received support from Pakistan’s ISI, he added.

Earlier, G. Grinder Muivah, close associate of NSCN (IM) supremo T. Muivah, was brought to Mizoram from Calcutta, to face charges of attempted hijacking. The 38-year-old Grinder, who is a close relative of the NSCN (I-M) supremo, had been arrested recently after he alighted from a Bangkok-Calcutta flight. The Mizoram police has registered criminal cases under provisions of Anti-Hijacking Act and Indian Penal Code at Aizawl police station against Grinder and his accomplice Ranju Rangan who was allegedly sent by the former to Mizoram’s Lengpui airport and arrested in Aizawl on February 15.

Rangan in his confessional statement to investigating agencies said a plot to hijack a plane from Mizoram had been hatched by Grinder and other NSCN (I-M) activists in New Delhi to secure the release of Muivah who had been detained in Thai jail for possessing fake travel documents, the official said. Rangan told his interrogators that he was sent by Grinder alias Phungrei Khai Muivah to reach the Lengpui airport as NSCN (I-M) "may have to launch Kathmandu-type operations," the official said.

In another development, several Naga organisations in Manipur have dubbed the recent arrest of jailed NSCN (I-M) general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah’s nephew at Calcutta airport as a "conspiracy" to derail on-going peace talk process in Nagaland.

In a joint statement, Manipur branch of Naga People’s Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR), All Naga Students Union of Manipur, Naga Women’s Union, Manipur expressed dismay over the arrest "on trumped up charge by Indian security officials."

They claimed Grinder is a businessman and registered as a CPWD "special contractor" and he was also in "good book of the PMO and the Union Home Ministry." He went to Bangkok to meet his uncle.