Dec. 9: India today secured the extradition of a Thai gunrunner, Wuthikorn Naruenarthwanich alias Willy Naru, accused of brokering arms deals between Northeast insurgent groups and Chinese suppliers.

Willy, 59, was brought to Delhi this morning from Bangkok following months of legal battle in Thailand and was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) immediately on arrival.

He was brought to India in compliance with an extradition order passed by a criminal court in Bangkok on March 31, 2014. His appeal against the order of extradition in the appellate court in Bangkok was rejected on November 4 this year.

Accordingly, he was handed over to the chief investigating officer of the case in Thailand yesterday by the government.

Willy is being interrogated in connection with a case registered by the NIA in 2010, probing the supply of illegal arms to militant groups in the Northeast and the suspected role of a Chinese arms manufacturer. Willy is believed to have good contacts with Chinese arms dealers.

"Most of the arms like AK-series rifles, machine guns and M20 pistol used by the insurgent groups are Chinese-made and are believed to have been manufactured by a Chinese arms manufacturer," a senior NIA official said.

The NIA had registered a case (number RC-01/2010) against Willy, Anthony Shimray, a self-styled commander of NSCN (Isak-Muivah) and two other NSCN (I-M) leaders at its headquarters in Delhi after Shimray was arrested by the agency in Patna on October 2010. During interrogation, he had told investigators that he had paid Willy for a large arms consignment.

The agency had filed a chargesheet in the case on March 26, 2011 against the four accused under Sections 120B, 121A and 122 of the IPC and Sections 16, 17, 18 and 20 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The same year, a non-bailable warrant and a red-corner notice were issued against him.

"Investigation by the NIA had revealed that Shimray had negotiated several times with Wuthikorn Naruenartwanich alias Willy to fix a deal to the tune of US $1.2 million to procure huge quantity of arms and ammunition for supply to the NSCN (I-M) and other insurgent groups operating in the Northeast region for waging war against the government of India. For this deal, US $800,000 was paid by accused Shimray to co-accused Willy," an NIA statement today said.

The Indian government requested Thailand for Willy's extradition through a diplomatic channel and Indian officers testified against him in the Thai court. Willy, who ran a spa in Bangkok, was arrested by Thai police in Bangkok in August 2013, following a tip-off provided by India.