The central Delhi police has arrested a Nepali national who was carrying hundreds of non-electric detonators and is suspected of having links with Communist Party of Nepal.
The accused, identified as Loknath Panth, 42, was arrested by special staff of central district police while he was going to New Delhi railway station from Karol Bagh. The police has recovered 500 detonators stitched to his jacket and hidden in a specially designed belt, besides a large amount of fake Nepalese currency.
“Panth is a member of a Nepali Maoist group CPN and we are investigating whether he has any contacts in the national capital. He came to India for the first time in 1985 and worked in a factory in Punjab’s Ludhiana. After his father’s death, he returned to Nepal and joined the CPN. We believe he was supplying explosives to Maoist groups and their whereabouts are being tracked,” a senior police official said.
The police had received a tip-off on Thursday that a Nepali citizen involved in supplying explosives to the Maoists was residing in Karol Bagh. “Besides the detonators and fake currency, a 27-metre explosive safety fuse wire has also been recovered from him. He has links with Nepali Maoists. He may also have some links with the Indian Maoists. We are ascertaining whether he was supplying detonators to the Maoists here,” the official said.
The police produced him before a city court on Friday after which he was remanded to police custody.