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Last week, the Anti Terrorist Squad of the Uttar Pradesh Police (UP ATS) in a significant catch, nabbed a practicing lawyer from Prayagraj district on March 5. The nabbed accused Kripashankar Singh (49) was arrested along with his wife Binda Sona (41) alias Manju alias Suman Ji.
According to the reports, the arrest of the accused has been made following a forensic examination of the electronic devices (laptop) seized by the police in July 2019 in connection with a case registered against as many as 7 persons including Binda Sona.
The forensic reports that have been recently received by the police have led to the startling revelation that the accused, Kripashankar, and his wife, Binda Shona, are both “urban members” of the outlawed Communist Party of India Maoist (CPI Maoist).
Kripshankar, a resident of Kushinagar, was residing in Prayagraj and was a practicing lawyer in the court, while his wife Binda Sona was working as a typist near the court premises. According to the ATS, both Kripashankar and his wife were involved in inciting people to join the outlawed Maoist outfit.
The investigation has further revealed that the Maoist couple has been indulged in spreading the footprints of the outlaws’ in 2U region, i.e. Uttar Pradesh and Uttar (North) Bihar. Significantly, the arrest of the accused has been made in the wake of the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) ongoing investigation pertaining to revival attempts of the Maoist outfit in the aforementioned regions.
Arrested Maoist couple
According to the UP ATS, Kripashankar, who studied polytechnic from Deoria started working for a non-government organisation (NGO), “Rupantar,” associated with Vinayak Sen and his wife at Raipur in the year 2004. It was there he met with his future wife Binda Sona, a resident of Konta Basti within the Abha Bazaar police station limits of Raipur.
The duo, after marrying, joined the outlawed CPI Maoist and then shifted to New Delhi on the instruction of the outfit in 2007–08 before moving to Kushinagar next year, where they started propagating the Maoist ideology among the farmers, labourers, and students.
The UP ATS has further informed that Kripashankar was also arrested previously by the police in connection with a case registered at Kanpur town police station in the year 2010, though he was later released on bail in the year 2016.
Upon stepping out of the prison, Kripashankar along with his wife Sona, started working covertly with the top brass of the Maoist outfit to augment the spread of the banned outfit in 2U region. The ATS has further alleged that the duo had also provided shelter to dreaded Maoist Kwanthan Srinivasan in Maharajganj district.
According to the details, the couple used to frequently visit Srinivasan, a seasoned Maoist carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakhs while the latter was staying at Karamahia village of Maharajganj with a false identity.
UP ATS investigation
Notably, the UP ATS in July 2019 registered a case against as many as 7 accused for allegedly conspiring or being indulged in carrying out incidents pertaining to left wing insurgencies across separate states.
The ATS had arrested Manish and Amita Srivastav and sent them to jail while electronic devices seized from the accused had been sent for forensic examination. Upon receiving the forensic reports, the ATS then arrested two more accused in the case Brijesh Kushwaha and his wife Prabha in October last year.
Also Read: Uttar Pradesh: Couple active as ‘Urban Naxals’ from UP held by ATS
It is worth mentioning here that earlier, the ATS, in a separate operation, had also nabbed as many as five Maoists from Basantpur village under the Sahatwar police station of Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh. During the course of interrogation, the arrested cadres of the banned Maoist outfit had disclosed that the group was indulged in recruiting youths from colleges and universities to further the Maoist ideology in the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh.
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