Indian army officer arrested for looting gold

• 6 May 2016
 
• From the sectionIndia

Image copyrightDilip Sharma

Image captionColonel Jasjit Singh was arrested on Thursday

An Indian army officer has been arrested for looting smuggled gold in the north-eastern state of Mizoram.

A senior police officer in the state told BBC Hindi that Colonel Jasjit Singh had been arrested on Thursday.

He is accused of directing his men to loot gold worth 140m rupees ($2.1m;£1.8m) that was being smuggled into Mizoram from Myanmar in December last year.

Mizoram shares an international border with Myanmar.

The police official told BBC Hindi that eight other army personnel were also arrested from the state's capital Aizawl for their role in the robbery.

Mr Singh knew about the smuggling of gold on this route and ordered his armed men to loot the vehicle, he said.

The police took action after the driver of the vehicle, C Lalnunfela, filed a complaint with the police on 21 April.

Mr Lalnunfela said he had earlier been too worried about his safety to complain, but decided to go the police after his friends and family talked him into it.

The Indian army has also started its own investigation into the matter.