In a major haul, Kolkata Police's Special Task Force today seized a rocket launcher manufacturing equipment, Rs 36 lakh in cash and documents from the flat of an arrested Maoist leader in North 24-Parganas district.
The STF conducted a raid in the flat of arrested Maoist leader, Ramkrishna, alias RK, at Ayodhyanagar in Birati, based on information given by him during interrogation.
Maoist literature and some documents were also recovered from his flat. Ramkrishna stayed in the flat under a false name before his arrest, STF sources said.
He himself and another arrested Maoist leader accompanied the sleuths during the raid, they said. Ramkrishna, Maoist Central Technical Committee member, and four other key members of the CPI (Maoist) were arrested by the elite anti-Naxal force Greyhounds of Andhra Pradesh and the STF in a joint operation that stretched on February 29 and March 1.
The operation was the first since the killing of CPI (Maoist) politburo member Kishenji by the Joint Forces in Jangalmahal, four months ago. Police said Ramakrishna from Andhra Pradesh, the possible successor to Kishenji, was, along with Dipak Kumar from Chhattisgarh, tasked with restructuring the organisation's Bengal operation.
Three of the arrested Maoists - Sukumar Mondal, Bapi Mudi and Sambhu Pal - are from West Bengal. On March 1, the arrested five were produced before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's court which remanded them to police custody till March 13.