Kolkata, July 10 2009: Seven years after he fled from India, Kamtapur Liberation Organization (KLO) chief Jibon Singha, alias Timir Das, may finally be in police custody.

Senior police officials in Kolkata have reasons to believe that Bangladesh Police rounded up this fugitive during a raid at a hotel in Jamalpur, near Dhaka, on Wednesday.

"We have got in touch with the Bangladesh government.

After initial examination, there is a strong possibility that the person arrested is none other than KLO chief Jibon Singha," said a senior police officer in Kolkata.

According to sources, the Bangladesh Police were looking for suspects in the notorious Chittagong arms smuggling case.

Jibon's arrest was a bonus for them.

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) was not even aware that he was among those they had rounded up from the Jamalpur hotel.

They got the first clue when they found that an Indian national was faking his identity as a Bangladeshi.

His features and age were very similar to that of the KLO fugitive.

The Indian external affairs ministry had passed on details about Jibon to Bangladesh Police after the KLO training camp in Bhutan was smashed in a joint operation by the Indian Army and the Royal Bhutan Army in 2003.Indian intelligence agencies have always suspected that Jibon had fled to Bangladesh.

Indian agencies quickly got in touch with their Bangladeshi counterparts to find out who this person was.

"The age and physical features are similar to Jibon," confirmed an Indian intelligence officer.

Hailing from Uttarhaldibari, a remote village in Jalpaiguri, bordering Bhutan and Assam, Jibon made his mark in student politics in the early Nineties.

He was then known as Timir Das.

After graduating from Alipurduar College, Timir came in contact with leaders of the All Koch Rajbanshi Students' Union, who were then demanding separate status for Rajbanshis the sons of the soil in this part of North Bengal.

An adept organizer, Timir soon became their leader and started an armed struggle in this sensitive area, flanked by international borders.

His transformation from Timir to Jibon Singha was during this period of guerrilla warfare that rocked the Jalpaiguri administration.

Jibon became chief of KLO in 1995 .

For the next three years, Jibon and his close aides Milton Burman and Madhusudan Das alias Tarzan managed to build close links with Ulfa and recruited hundreds of youths from different parts of Jalpaiguri.

With the help of Ulfa, Jibon set up a training camp in the forests of Bhutan.

In 1999, KLO conducted its first operation by abducting a tea planter at Lataguri.

In August 2002, armed KLO cadres attacked a CPM office at Dhupguri and killed 5 CPM activists.

By 2003, KLO was a major threat in the whole of North Bengal and Assam.

That year, a joint commando operation by India and Bhutan razed the KLO camp to the ground.

Several KLO cadres were arrested or killed.

Jibon reportedly fled to Bangladesh with the help of fugitive Ulfa leader Paresh Baruah and some key HuJI operatives, where he continued recruiting for his organization and revived the KLO.

Intelligence officers say that in the past few years he visited some places in Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri to meet with his aides.

In 2008, Bangladesh CID had claimed that Jibon was involved in the Nobel theft case and confirmed that Jibon had stayed for a few months near Dhaka.

Jibon, however, denied the allegation by sending a letter to several newspaper houses.

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