One of the two accused in the March 26 Khonsa jailbreak case was arrested on Monday morning from an abandoned hut in the Bogapani area of Arunachal Pradesh’s Tirap district.

Rocksen Homcha, an NSCN (Niki Sumi faction) operative in his twenties,was arrested after a 10-hour joint operation involving around 80 state and paramilitary personnel. He had escaped from the jail after gunning down the IRB jawan Wangniam Bosai on duty with the AK-47 rifle snatched from the deceased security personnel on the evening of March 26.

Homcha, an undertrial hailing from Tirap, was lodged in the jail in connection with an extortion case last year. He escaped with a murder convict Titpu Kitnya, who remains at large.

The search operation was led by the state police, including STF personnel, supported by the 6 Assam Rifles and the 36 CRPF personnel.

“The accused was staying with some labourers in the building at Bogapani. Sensing our presence, the labourers fled the location but the team acted swiftly and apprehended the accused Homcha. The weapon snatched by Homcha from late Bosai (AK 47) along with 17 rounds of ammunition have been recovered,” a statement by the Arunachal police PRO said.

Bogapani is close to the Assam border.

The search operation to locate and apprehend the other escaped convict Titpu Kitnya is still underway by the joint team, the police statement said.

Congratulating the security personnel for the breakthrough, Tirap DC Hento Karga told The Telegraph that a judicial probe hasbeen ordered into the jailbreak to ascertain the circumstances leading to the jailbreak.

He also said the administration has requested the government to shift the apprehended accused to the Itanagar jail as it is more secure and the posting of well-trained personnel to the Khonsa jail to prevent a repeat.

The area where the accused was arrested is around 25km from the jail.

Security was tightened around all exit routes in the three districts — which have an active militant presence, especially those belonging to the NSCN factions — following the jailbreak which sent a shockwave because of the manner in which it was executed.

The accused had fired around 15 rounds, several rounds to break the lock of the exit gate to escape, an official said.

“There were six-seven security personnel on duty and around 30 inmates, including the escapees,” the official said.

Several hundred participated in a candlelightvigil organised on March 29by the All Tirap District Students Union and Kaimai Welfare Youth Club to pay respect to the slain constable Bosai who died on the way to Dibrugarh.

Tirap is one of the three districts in the frontier state where the Armed Forces Special (Powers) Act was extended for another six months from April 1 by the Union home ministry.

The other districts and areas where the AFSPA was extended are Changlang and Longding and areas under three police stations — Namsai, Mahadevpur and Chowkham — in the Namsai district.

The AFSPA gives security personnel unbridled power to search, arrest and shoot in areas declared as disturbed under the act.

Tirap borders Assam, Nagaland and Myanmar.