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In a major blow to the outlawed Communist Party of India Maoist (CPI Maoist) as many as 15 active cadres of the banned outfit have surrendered before the Jharkhand police on Thursday, April 11, said police.
According to the details shared by the police, those who surrendered were all part of the notorious Misir Besra gang, a top Maoist leader carrying a bounty of Rs 1 crore on his head. The surrender includes as many as two female Maoist cadres along with a minor.
Those who have surrendered were active in the core Maoist zone of Kolhan forest region of West Singhbhum district, one of the remaining strongholds of the extremists in the State of Jharkhand.
The surrender took place before the senior officials of the Jharkhand police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) where former cadres of the banned outfit were all welcomed in the mainstream. The surrendered Maoists will be soon provided with the benefits of rehabilitation schemes.
The development marks its significance as it has occurred days ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in the state, which is scheduled to take place in the month of May and June this year. According to the reports, it will be after a significant gap of decades that elections will be held in a few pockets of West Singhbhum lok Sabha constituency, which were earlier considered hotbeds of the left wing insurgency.
It is to be noted that the West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand has been a hotbed of insurgency for decades and still holds a few remaining operational pockets of the Maoist under the Eastern Regional Bureau (ERB) of the proscribed CPI Maoist.
NIA nabbed one in PLFI revival case
In another significant development, the National Investigative Agency (NIA) has arrested one person in connection with a case relating to revival attempts of People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI), a splinter group of the banned CPI Maoists. The agency was informed on April 11.
According to the details, the sleuths of the agency carried out multiple raids in separate locations across Jharkhand and Assam, which led to the arrest of Vinod Munda alias Sukhwa, a wanted PLFI cadre from Khunti district of Jharkhand on Wednesday, April 10. Alongside arresting Vinod, the NIA’s team has also seized incriminating materials, including walkie talkie, mobile phones, cash and documents related to outlawed PLFI.
It must be noted that earlier, the NIA had also arrested as many as two active cadres of the banned outfit, along seizing arms and ammunition from the possession of the accused. As per the details, the arrested accused were indulged in activities pertaining to revival of the PLFI following the arrest of its supremo, Dinesh Gope.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Jharkhand police and the NIA (National Investigative Agency) in a joint operation had arrested hardcore Maoist and PLFI (People’s Liberation Front of India) supremo Dinesh Gope on May 20 last year. Gope was arrested following a swift operation by a joint team of NIA and Jharkhand police in Nepal, where he had been living in disguise for a long time.
Gope, a resident of Khunti district, had as many as 102 cases registered against him in different police stations of Jharkhand, Odisha and Bihar at the time of his arrest. The cases includes of 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.
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