Guwahati, Jan. 8: Police last night apprehended John Toppo, the acting commander-in-chief of the Adivasi National Liberation Army (ANLA), from the Chungajan area under Sarupathar police station along the Assam-Nagaland border.

Toppo had been taking shelter in an NSCN camp in Dimapur along with his wife Anita and had crossed over to Assam only yesterday, the police said.

The ANLA leader was produced in a Golaghat court today and remanded in seven days’ police custody. The Sarupathar sub-divisional police officer, Bolin Deori, said Toppo was acting as the commander of the outfit after Nirmal Tirki was arrested in Jharkhand late last year.

Nirmal, who is currently in police custody in Assam, will be taken to Jharkhand again since he is wanted in a kidnapping case in that state. Deori said Toppo was responsible for the recent bid to blow up the Rajdhani Express in Karbi Anglong. Toppo hails from Merapani.

The Telegraph reported last week about the presence of leaders and other cadres of several Assam militant outfits in camps of the Naga rebels. Though the police claimed that Toppo was apprehended from Merapani in Golaghat district, sources in the home department said he was actually picked up from Dimapur town by a team of Assam police in civvies.

Dimapur superintendent of police Lirimo Lotha declined having knowledge of such arrests in areas under his jurisdiction. “Assam police would have informed us,” he said. On ANLA militants taking shelter in Dimapur under the protection of the NSCN (I-M), Lotha said these were mere allegations by Assam police. “If they had any concrete evidence they should provide us with the same.”

Toppo revealed during interrogation that at least 20 ANLA cadres are still holed up in NSCN camps near Dimapur, the commercial capital of Nagaland. “He said at least 20 cadres are being sheltered in Nagaland by the NSCN (I-M),” Deori told The Telegraph today.

Deuri said there were specific information that three vehicles — a Bolero, a Gypsy and a Maruti car — belonging to the Nirmal Tirki are being used by the NSCN (I-M) and these vehicles move about freely in Dimapur town. “Tirki had told us about the vehicles he had purchased when he was in Dimapur before fleeing to Jharkhand. The vehicles have the same registration numbers now and these vehicles are in possession of the NSCN (I-M),” Deuri said.

The police official, however, declined to give out the registration numbers of the vehicles.

Toppo has confessed that the NSCN (I-M) has been providing logistical support to ANLA since it was formed in 2004 at the Doyang Nahortoli ME School at Merapani. “Apart from providing training to the outfit’s cadres, the NSCN (I-M) has also been supplying arms and ammunition to the outfit,” Dueri said, quoting Toppo.

The police official said Toppo had provided vital information about the outfit’s activities during preliminary interrogation. “We will get more information about the outfit only after a thorough interrogation,” he added.