Assam Rifles has arrested the key accused in the 2023 kidnapping and murder of two Meitei students

The accused, identified as Nokjaging Baite Kuki alias Tiger (38), was nabbed on May 22 from Ngathal village in Churachandpur. | Photo credit: Special arrangement

The Assam Rifles have arrested a key member of the United Kuki National Army (UKNA), an insurgent group active in Manipur’s Churachandpur, who is wanted for the alleged kidnapping and murder of two Meitei students in July 2023, a senior government official said.

Photos of the bodies of the two students surfaced on social media two months after their deaths in September 2023, leading to massive protests that left many people, mostly students, injured.

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The key accused, identified as Nokjaging Baite Kuki, alias Tiger (38), was arrested on May 22 from Ngathal village in Churachandpur and handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the killing of the two students.

A CBI court in Guwahati issued a non-bailable warrant against the accused on June 26, 2024 and subsequently declared him a proclaimed offender. While the CBI arrested four Kuki-Zo people for the alleged crime on October 1, 2023, the agency charged Nokjaging Baite Kuki with criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence, causing evidence to disappear, harboring offenders and kidnapping.

The accused is wanted for other serious crimes in the ethnic violence-hit state and has managed to evade arrest for the past three years, the official said.

“An AK rifle, a pistol and grenades were found with him. Two others were also caught with him. He had eluded the security forces several times earlier,” the official said.

Two UKNA cadres who were also arrested are Thongpi Guite (33) and Shokhomang Baite (40).

The accused was operating in coordination with self-proclaimed lieutenant Jamkhogin Guit alias Pepsi, who was apprehended by the Assam Rifles on October 1, 2025, the official added. His involvement was found in many violent incidents in Manipur, including the attack on the then Chief Minister N. Biren Singh’s convoy in Jiribam on 10 June 2024; the killing of three Meitei woodcutters at Haotak Khollen in Churachandpur; more killings in the Songdo area; the Kangpokpi power tower demolition in 2023; and the attack on a petrol tanker in Jiribam in 2024.

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The UKNA insurgent group has been active in Henglep sub-division, southwest of Churachandpur district, since 2015. The accused joined UKNA in 2021 after leaving another insurgent group, which is in a “cease of operations” pact or peace deal with the government.

More than 260 people have been killed since 3 May 2023 when ethnic violence broke out in Manipur between the Kuki-Zo and the Meitei people.

Published – 24 May 2026 20:46 IST