Barun Roy alias Samar Deb in the Jalpaiguri police lock-up. Picture by Biplab Basak

Jalpaiguri, Nov. 27: Police arrested Barun Roy alias Samar Deb, a Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) cadet, from Kadamtala in Mainaguri town last night.

According to the police, Barun, a KLO cadet of the fourth batch, was picked up when he was on his way to home.

“The arrested rebel has started singing like a canary during interrogation and has provided classified information about the militant outfit,” said the police.

Barun was today produced in the Jalpaiguri court on charges of treason and nexus with a militant outfit.

Later, speaking to reporters at the court campus here, he disclosed that he had come down from the south Bhutan camps on the eve Durga puja.

Barun, however, refused to divulge whether he was the part of the team, which had come down to the Jalpaiguri district during puja for terror strikes.

“I underwent a two-month training at the KLO’s Piping camp last year. However, I had to cut short the programme due to ill health,” he said.

Barun, an asthma patient, was asked by the KLO leaders to go back home and “take care of his health”.

“I developed several complications during the training programme. Hence the leaders asked me to go back home after only two months of the training programme. My seniors were also extremely helpful and kind towards me. They gave me Rs 2,500 for my treatment,” he said.

The Jalpaiguri police administration has, however, refused to “buy his story”.

“We are trying to ascertain whether his statements were true. He might have come down to participate in the terror strikes planned by the outfit during puja,” said a senior policez official.

Barun, son of Ashwini Roy and a resident of Chaptimukhi village, which falls under Banarhat police station, joined the organisation in early 2002.

He had apparently joined the militant group on persuasion of one of his neighbours, Jogesh Roy. “ Jogesh had convinced me to join the KLO’s fourth batch. I had enrolled along with 65 trainees. Life, however, at the camp was extremely rigorous. We had to undergo arms training, handling sophisticated weapons, and also maintain a hectic schedule, which involved gruelling physical exercises,” said Barun.

The district police and intelligence officials said they were trying to corroborate his statements. “We can only get to the bottom of truth through sustained interrogation and tallying the facts with his statements,”added the official.