In what can be termed as a major success for the security forces, hardcore Maoist and PLFI (People’s Liberation Front of India) supremo Dinesh Gope was arrested in a joint operation of Jharkhand police and NIA (National Investigative Agency) on May 20.
Dinesh Gope was arrested by a joint team of NIA and Jharkhand police from Nepal, where he had been living in disguise for a long. It’s been learnt that Dinesh Gope had been residing there as a Sikh when the joint team apprehended him in a special operation on May 20. As per the reports, he was brought up to Delhi after the arrest, and then the officials took him to Ranchi. He was taken out of the Birsa Munda airport amid straightened security at around 5.30 pm on May 21 evening.
Dinesh Gope, a Khunti resident, is considered one of the most dreaded Maoist of the region, with as many as 102 cases registered against him in different police stations of Jharkhand, Odisha and Bihar. The cases registered against him include murder, arson and extortion, for which a reward of Rs 25 lakh was announced on him by Jharkhand’s State Government. Additionally, a reward of Rs 5 lakh was also announced on Dinesh Gope by the NIA in connection with a terror funding case registered by the central agency in 2018.
Dinesh Gope is considered to be the founder of PLFI, a splinter group of the proscribed Communist Party of India (Maoist). The so-called liberation group was earlier known as Jharkhand Liberation Tiger (JLT), which was later established as PLFI in 2007. Dinesh Gope became the undisputed supremo of the group since it was founded and has been hunted by the security forces since then.
PLFI, under Dinesh Gope, after its establishment, heavily relied upon the extortion money being forcefully collected as levy from the private groups and businessmen involved in coal trading and various other Government projects, including railways. The extremist outfit has been responsible for numerous incidents of arson and killings in the Maoist-affected region of Jharkhand as part of their nefarious design to establish PLFI as the leading Left Wing Extremist organisation in Jharkhand and other nearby States.
It’s been reported that Dinesh Gope, as PLFI supremo made sure that the outfit collected huge extortion money from different means to buy sophisticated weapons and ammunition to instil a sense of fear among the locals and the police for the smooth running of the outfit and to recruit new cadres, he also had advised his associates to lured those youths who had been in jail for small crimes.
Dinesh Gope was also accused in a case pertaining to the deposit of demonetised currency which was later channelised through various shell companies and the Hawala network. The case pertains to the seizure of Rs 25.38 lacs which was deposited in a State Bank of India (SBI) branch in Bero of Ranchi in November 2016. The NIA had also held Hira Devi and Shakuntala Kumari, the wives of Dinesh Gope, in the case alongside attaching movable and immovable properties of Dinesh Gope worth more than a crore in 2020.
Meanwhile, on the other hand, security forces in Jharkhand had also been continuously raiding possible hideouts of the Maoist outfit, which led to the arrest and neutralisation of many top commanders of PLFI, including zonal commander Jidan Gudiya and Tilkeshwar Gope in the last few years.
Jidan Gudiya, the zonal commander of the proscribed Maoist outfit who was carrying a reward of Rs 15 lakh, was gunned down in Koyangsar under the Murhu Police Station area of the Jamshedpur district in December 2020, while Tilkeshwar Gope, who is also considered to be close to the PLFI supremo, was nabbed by the Jharkhand police from Jind region of Ranchi in January this year.
The security forces had also come close to arresting Dinesh Gope in February last year when he was encircled by the forces near Gudri police station of West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand though after a heavy gunfight, Dinesh Gope, along with his associates, somehow managed to escape the arrest. It’s been learnt that Dinesh Gope since then had been hiding in different locations to evade his arrest and was finally arrested from Nepal.
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