The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested a member of the Maoist-backed People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA) for his alleged involvement in the sabotage of the Gyaneswari Express which had killed nearly 150 passengers.
The accused, Lakshman Mahato alias Dhun, is a resident of Kusumghati village in Jhargram of West Midnapore. “He was arrested by a CBI team from his house on Saturday late night,” said special public prosecutor of the Central Bureau of Investigation Partha Tapaswi. His cellphone and its SIM card were also seized.
With his arrest, the total number of arrest rose to 10. During interrogations, the 26-year-old had confessed of removing the pandrol clips from the railway tracks at Sardiha alongwith other People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities members early on May 28, sources revealed.
“He was produced at the Jhargram court on Sunday which remanded him in ten days’ CBI custody,” Mr Tapaswi added. The CBI is now examining his cellphone and the SIM card for the call records to know whom he used to maintain contacts before and after the carnage. Although prime accused in the case and People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities leader Bapi Mahato was arrested in the case, two other PCPA leaders — Umakanto Mahato and Asit Mahato, wanted by the CBI, are still at large.
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Maoist leader shot dead in encounter
Anand S.T. Das
Patna
A top Maoist leader in Jharkhand working for the dreaded Kundan Pahan outfit and allegedly responsible for over a dozen violent crimes, including the murder of a JD(U) MLA, was gunned down in an encounter with the state police near Ranchi on Sunday. Rajesh Singh Munda, the self-styled area commander of the ostensibly Maoist outfit, died during a fierce gunbattle between a group of his cadres and a joint team of policemen from the Ranchi district and the Jharkhand Armed Police (JAP) at Hesso village under Namkom police station on the outskirts of the Jharkhand capital.
A carbine and over a dozen cartridges were seized from his possession, police said.
The slain Maoist could not be initially identified as the encounter ended in the wee hours, but Ranchi SP Praveen Kumar said the police informers later conclusively identified him to be Rajesh Singh Munda, who was responsible for the murder of JD(U) MLA Ramesh Singh Munda two years ago. “He had been a terror in three police station areas in and around Ranchi — Bundu, Namkum and Angara — which were under his so-called control,” said Kumar. Police also gained success in the Maoist-infested district of Giridih when they held Lakhan Singh, a leader of the outlawed CPI(Maoist).