In a significant breakthrough for the security forces in Jharkhand, dreaded Maoist and member of the state area committee of the outlawed CPI-Maoist Navin Yadav alias Sarabjeet Yadav has reportedly surrendered before the Jharkhand police, confirmed sources.
However, the Jharkhand police have so far kept a tight lip on his arrest, and there has not been any official confirmation made about the arrest of the top commander.
Navin, a resident of Bashutta village of Chatra district in Jharkhand, was recently active in the Budha pahad region of west singhbhum, a citadel of Maoists, till October last year. It’s been learnt that Navin was forced to shift his base to Chatra after the success of operation Octopus, launched to eradicate Left wing terror from the Budha Pahad.
More than five dozen cases, including murder, loot, IED explosions, kidnapping and extortion, have been pending against him in the different police stations of Chatra, West Singhbhum, Giridih, Latehar of Jharkhand and Aurangabad and Gaya of Bihar.
Yadav is considered the mastermind behind the 2013 attack on security forces in Kariya of Latehar, where 17 security personnel were martyred. He is also a prime accused in the 2012 attack in Bhandariya of Garhwa, where 13 personnel, including the charge station, were killed.
In 2011 Navin had attacked the convoy of the then Member of Parliament, Inder Singh Namdhari, killing as many as eight security forces personnel. In 2016 Yadav led a deadly attack on the security forces on Aurangabad road in which a total of 10 jawans were martyred.
In all, Navin is accused of killing a total of 48 security personnel for which a bounty of Rs 25 lakhs has already been placed on his head; he has reportedly surrendered from the Chatra area, following which a team of Jharkhand police has taken him to some unknown location, confirm sources.
It should be noted that in 2019 Jharkhand police seized around 31-acre land of Yadav near Pratappur of Chatra.
PLFI commander held in Ranchi
Meanwhile, in another significant development on the Maoist front, the Jharkhand police have managed to arrest a sub-zonal commander of the outlawed PLFI (a splinter group of CPI-Maoist) along with his associates on Thursday.
The arrested commander has been identified as Tilkeshwar Gope, a close aide of PLFI supremo Dinesh Gope; Gope has been arrested from the Angara region of Ranchi.
It’s been learnt that SSP Kishore Kaushal has received a tipoff about the presence of PLFI Maoists in the Angara region. After this, a joint team was sent to the location, after which Gope and his associate were arrested.
A country not gun, 303 rifles, ten cartridges, and letterhead of PLFI has been recovered from the possession of the Maoists, confirmed officials of Jharkhand police.
A total of 68 cases, including murder and other serious offences, have been pending against Tilkeshwar in different police stations of the State, for which a reward of Rs 10 lakh was announced to him.
They have come here to collect levies from the local business people and were carrying several different mobiles to communicate, said an official familiar with the development.
