Jharkhand: Zonal commander of the banned CPI-Maoist held in Latehar

Security forces in Jharkhand have arrested a zonal commander of the proscribed CPI-Maoist from the Shanti forest area under Balumath police station limits of latehar in Jharkhand on March 16.

The development occurred when the district police acting on a tip-off, arrested the top zonal commander of the CPI-Maoist Sheetal Ram alias Sheetal Mochi (30) from the outskirts of the Shanti forest area, it’s been learnt that Sheetal was a member of the dreaded Ravindra Ganjhu group.

Briefing the media on the development SP Latehar, Anjani Anjan said that “the police have arrested the Maoist commander following a specific unit, he is an expert in planting Improvised Explosives Devices (IEDs) and as many as 25 cases have been pending against him in different police stations in Latehar, Lohardaga and Gumla.”

He was a member of the dreaded Ravindra Ganjhu gang, and a reward of Rs 5 lakhs had already been announced on him, a country-made pistol of 765 mm cartridges, cartridges of AK-47 along with 10000 cash have been recovered from him, added SP Anjan.

Female Maoist commander surrendered in Chhattisgarh

In a separate development on the Maoist front, a female Maoist commander of the outlawed CPI-Maoist has surrendered before the police in Sukma of Chhattisgarh on March 16.

The surrendered Maoist has been identified as Santo alias Rame, she had been an active member of the Maoist outfit for a long and was currently heading the Aamdai Local Guerrilla Squad (LGS) of the CPI-Maoist.

“The surrendered Maoist Rame was involved in different Maoist incidents in Kondagaon and Narayanpur districts of Chhattisgarh for which she was carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakhs. She was inspired by the ‘Puna Narkom’ campaign being run by the district administration and forces in the district,” said SP Sukma, Sunil Sharma.

“Rame was deeply moved by the ill treatment of women cadres in the outfit thus she decided to shunn the path of violence and join the mainstream, she will be rehabilitated as per the state government rehabilitation policy”, added SP Sharma.

It is to be noted that over the last few years, surrenders of the local Maoist cadres have grown manifold in the Maoist-affected zones of the region. These zones include insurgency-hit districts like Sukma and Dantewada, where campaigns like Poona Narkom and Lone Varatu have turned out to be one of the most successful campaigns being run against the Left Wing Extremism.