Elizabeth's murder case
Main accused James Kuki sent to jail
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, June 23: The Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate of Imphal has today remanded James Kuki, the main accused in the sensational case of kidnapping for ransom and subsequent murder of baby Lungnila Elizabeth, to judicial custody till July 7. James Kuki alias Letsei Haokip (35) was produced before the Court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate located at Lamphelpat here at around noon by CBI officials which is handling the case amid tight security.

Main accused in the murder of school girl, Lungnila, James Kuki being escorted by the police after he was sent to jail by the Court Pic Courtesy: TSE

The Court headed by RK Memcha Devi heard the matter inside her Court office chamber.

Sleuths of CBI arrested James Kuki from Dimapur on June 10 and he was produced before a Duty Magistrate the following day after which he was remanded to police custody for 14 days to extract information by the CBI interrogators.

The mortal remains of the 8-year old Lungnila, daughter of then Education Minister Francis Ngajokpa, was found inside a gunny bag at an isolated place at Tera Sadokpam area on November 12, 2003 after some unidentified persons, who came in a Maruti Van abducted her from near Little Flower School, where she studied, for ransom on November 4. Following the unrelenting public protest demanding arrest of the perpetrators of the gruesome crime, the State Government handed the case over to the CBI.

The case was earlier handled by the Additional CJM Imphal.

Subsequently, the independent investigating body of the country registered a fresh case at its Special Crime Branch (SCB) office at Kolkata.

Following the implication of his name in the crime, James Kuki fled from the State but was caught by NSCN (IM) at Dimapur and was kept at its Hebron camp.

The outfit conducted an inquiry on the matter and the accused was released on parole some years back.

Besides Kuki, two other accused in the crime namely Thokchom Nando and N Rome Singh are currently serving their terms at Sajiwa central jail .

To ascertain the veracity of the statements given to the CBI, the two had undergone lie detection and narco analysis tests at Gandhinagar forensic laboratory.

According to CBI officials besides James Kuki, Rome and Nando, there are also some other suspects still at large.

A crack down would be launched to arrest all the suspects along with the support of State police forces, the CBI officials said.

However, they declined to name the suspects.

As they did to Rome and Nando, the CBI is also contemplating to conduct lie detection and narco analysis test on James.

Earlier during the day today, Imphal police re-arrested James Kuki in connection with a separate FIR registered filed in connection with an extortion case, police source said adding that he would be produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Imphal on the same matter.