NIA arrests man from Bengaluru for supplying IEDs to trigger blasts in Assam on Independence Day

NIA, with the assistance of local police, arrested the man, who is suspected to be a member of the proscribed ULFA group.

Bengaluru: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) picked up a 26-year-old Assamese man from Bengaluru’s Jigani Industrial Area on Tuesday. He is suspected to have supplied improvised explosive devices (IED)-like substances to carry out blasts in Assam on August 15.

NIA, with the assistance of Bengaluru police, arrested Girish Baruah, alias Gautam Baruah, a suspected member of the proscribed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), from the premises of a private company in Jigani, a well-placed police officer told DH.

A source with the Bengaluru police confirmed the development to DH and said that Baruah was produced before the NIA special court in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

A release from NIA stated that Baruah was ferried to Assam using a transit remand. He was later produced before the Special NIA court in Assam’s Guwahati. It said that Baruah was a part of the operatives team that had placed IEDs at locations in North Lakhimpur district in Assam at the behest of the top leadership of the outfit.

Assam police unearthed "bomb-like substances" from at least 10 places, including four in Guwahati on Independence Day. Multiple SITs were formed by the Assam government to probe the case. NIA said that it was an armed protest against Independence Day celebrations in India by the banned ULFA (I).

According to well-placed sources, Baruah arrived in Bengaluru in the first week of August after allegedly supplying IED-like substances to ULFA members who planted them in different parts of Assam on Independence Day.

“Baruah took up a security job at a private company in Jigani through a friend in Bengaluru. He came here and stayed with the same friend, going to his job regularly, but the friend didn’t have any clue about the IEDs part,” a source said.

On Tuesday, Baruah was at his job along with his colleagues when a NIA team arrived and arrested him. Police tracked Baruah using technical leads and credible sources in the state, according to police.

Last week, Assam police announced the arrest of 15 people from nine districts of Assam in connection with the case. Baruah’s arrest came as a fresh development in the case.