Top Maoist leader held in Assam

CPI(Maoist) central committee member Anukul Chandra Naskar, who was arrested by the Assam police in Guwahati on Thursday. Photo: PTI

The 65-year-old Naskar hails from Balia in 24 South Parganas district

A joint team of the Assam police and the Special Intelligence Branch (SIB) from Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday arrested top CPI (Maoist) leader Anukul Chandra Naskar alias Goer Chandra Naskar alias Pareshji in southern Assam’s Cachar district.

Senior Superintendent of Police A.P. Tiwari told The Hindu that Naskar was a “very senior leader and a policymaker of the CPI (Maoist).” He is member of the Polit Bureau of the CPI (Maoist). The 65-year-old Naskar, who hails from Balia under the Sonapur police station in 24 South Parganas district of West Bengal, joined the Maoist Coordination Committee (MCC) in 1967. He became a member of the central committee of the MCC in 1985. When the MCC and the People’s War Group (PWG) merged to form the CPI (Maoist) in 2004, Naskar was made a member of the central committee and the Polit Bureau.

Naskar was remanded in police custody for five days by the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kamrup, on Thursday, the SSP said.

Mr. Tiwari said that the SIB team arrived in the city on May 7 and left for Cachar district with a team of the police and arrested Naskar. He was brought to the city later.

“While the SIB team from Andhra Pradesh is already here, in the next couple of days top officials of the Intelligence Bureau, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), top police officials of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and other Maoist affected areas are expected to arrive in the city to interrogate him to get some more leads,” Mr, Tiwari added.

The joint team got lead on Naskar’s presence in Cachar during the interrogation of two other top Maoist leaders — Aklanta Rabha and Siraj Rabha — who were arrested on April 26 on the outskirts of the city, police sources said.