A SCOT, who spent eight years in prison for robbery and hijacking in the 80s, has been arrested by Indian police on suspicion of aiding rebels in their fight for independence.

David Ward, from Edinburgh, son of a tea-planting family, was arrested in north-east India. He claimed to be monitoring human rights abuses in Nagaland, where separatists have fought a 50-year war.

But Kezilezor Phizo, spokes-man for the exiled Naga National Council in London,, said yesterday the organisation had had no contact with Mr Ward since he was in prison in 1992.

He added: ''He is now working in his own personal interests and those of his separatist group, and we don't know what he is trying to achieve. It certainly has nothing to do with the political situation in Nagaland.''

Police said they had arrested Mr Ward after receiving information that he was helping the rebels raise funds.

Mr Ward, 41, became interested in the region's struggle while serving a prison sentence for robbery in the UK.

He was arrested in Nagaland's frontier town of Noklak, about 185 miles east of the state capital, Kohima, on Sunday. He has since been transferred to a jail in the town of Dinajpur.

NN Walling, local police spokesman, said: ''Ward was arrested on charges of aiding and abetting separatist insurgency, besides not possessing any valid travel documents. He is now behind bars and we are interrogating him.''

Representative bodies for the Naga population yesterday distanced themselves from Mr Ward's activities and labelled him a ''maverick''.

It is the second time the activist has been held by state authorities. In 1992, he was detained for 14 months with Steve Hillman, another British national, after the pair posed as BBC journalists.

Police claimed they were travelling in convoy with Naga rebels who fled when challenged at a military checkpoint. The pair had faced life sentences if convicted, but were deported to the UK after John Major, then prime minister, intervened.

Mr Ward was born into a tea-planting family in neighbouring Assam, to which the Naga Hills formerly belonged, before being shipped off to school in Scotland, including a spell in North Berwick.

During the mid-1980s, he was sentenced to five years in prison, following a spate of break-ins committed while the owners were at home. His sentence was extended by three years when he went on the run after hijacking a prison van.

He became passionate about the Naga cause after studying anthropology in prison and encouraged fellow prisoners, including Mr Hillman, to help set up Naga Vigil.

The organisation's website claims: ''The situation is unique as the homeland is occupied by the armed forces of both India and Myanmar in a region geographically and politically isolated from the rest of the world.

''As foreigners are denied access to the region under the Disturbed Areas Act of 1958, impartial, continual documentation of the situation is

impossible.''

Mr Ward is believed to have returned to Nagaland about two years ago when police claim he met terrorist members of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland.

He is thought to have evaded police so far by shuttling between villages in the state and sneaking into adjoining Burma.

Mr Walling added: ''We almost nabbed him last year but local support by militants formed a human shield to resist his arrest. There would have been heavy casualties if we used force to capture him, so we refrained.''

A spokesman for the Foreign Office yesterday confirmed the UK consulate in India had been in touch with the relevant authorities and were hoping to make direct contact with Mr Ward.