Officials said that Paolun Mang was arrested on Wednesday from Pune in Maharashtra and produced before a CBI court, which sent him to police custody until 16 October.

“Mang’s role was prominent behind the abduction and murder of the two students. He is being questioned based on the interrogation of the four people who were arrested before,” HT reported a CBI official as saying.

Earlier on 1 October, the CBI-led security forces team arrested four suspects – two men, Paominlun Haokip and S Malsawm Haokip, and two women, Lhingneichong Baitekuki and Tinneilhing Henthang.

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As per the probe, the boy – Phijam Hemanjit Singh (20) of Takyel and girl Luwangbi Linthoingambi Hijam (17) of Tera – were allegedly abducted by Kuki militants in Laimaton on 6 July. However, the CBI officials are yet to recover the bodies, photographs surfaced in September indicating that they were killed.

Until the photos surfaced on social media, the families of the students believed that their children were missing but were alive somewhere in the ethnic strife-torn state.

But on 25 September, two days after the state government restored cellular internet services, several photos of the students surfaced on social media.

One image showed them sitting on the ground which appears to be a forest with two armed men in the background, and another showed them lying dead. The two are wearing the same clothes as seen in the first photograph. Their faces are not visible in the second photograph. Mint could not independently verify the authenticity of the photographs.

After the images went viral, it triggered protests across the state, and on 28 September, a huge mob even tried to storm Chief Minister Biren Singh’s private residence at Luwangsangbam. Police and security forces even had to resort to firing tear gas shells to contain the protests in the days after the photos surfaced on social media.

To probe the alleged murder of the two students, a special CBI team led by senior officer special director Ajay Bhatnagar was flown to Imphal. the CBI is on the lookout for LHingneichong’s husband, Wohkhogin Baite alias Tiger (36), a militant who is alleged to be the main accused in the case, said the officials.

With agency inputs.

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Updated: 13 Oct 2023, 06:07 PM IST