Nagaland's home minister detained; Rs 1.10cr cash, arms seized from his vehicle

NEW DELHI: Nagaland's home minister Imkong L Imchen was detained at 5.30 am on Monday near the poll-bound state's Wokha district after Rs 1.10 crore in cash and a cache of arms and ammunition, including rifles, was recovered from his vehicle by Assam Rifles personnel.
EC sources told TOI that apart from Rs 1.10 crore in cash, 5 pistols, 2 7.65 mm calibre rifles and 140 .303 rifle bullets were seized from the vehicle in which he was travelling to his constituency Koridanga in Mokokchung district from Kohima. Assam Rifles intercepted the vehicle near the Nagaland-Assam border and recovered the aforesaid items after a search.
Imchem is the Nagaland People's Front candidate from Koridanga and also the campaign in charge of NPF.
This is second big seizure from Nagaland in the last couple of days. On Saturday, Rs 1 crore in cash was seized from a helicopter hired by another NPF candidate, Nyemli Phom. He had later claimed that the money was given to him by the party and was part of NPF funds. EC is now awaiting a written confirmation of this from the NPF treasurer.
The seizures from Imchem and Phom will, however, not affect the polls in their respective constituencies, EC sources told .