Muivah pleads not guilty to forgery charge

BANGKOK, MARCH 9: Rebel Naga leader Thuingaleng Muivah today pleaded not guilty to a charge of travelling to Thailand on a false passport,...

BANGKOK, MARCH 9: Rebel Naga leader Thuingaleng Muivah today pleaded not guilty to a charge of travelling to Thailand on a false passport, a court official said.

Muivah, 66, general secretary of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM), will be tried April 27, court registrar Thongchai Ketwaralak said.

Muivah was arrested at Bangkok airport on January 19 for allegedly travelling on a false South Korean passport. He jumped 200,000 baht (5,260 dollars) bail but was recaptured on January 29 in southern Thailand as he tried to flee to Malaysia. He was sentenced by a court in the southern Thai town of Songkhla to a year in prison for trying to use a false Singapore passport to escape to Malaysia.

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The Indian Embassy in Thailand said India would not intervene in the case and will not seek Muivah’s extradition.

"If the Indian government had an intention to arrest this man, it could have done that last year when he was in the country," an embassy official said on condition of anonymity.