An alleged member of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) who was wanted in several cases of murder and extremist activities has been arrested by Delhi Police. The police claim to have seized a sophisticated pistol from the accused who is said to be an expert at handling weapons and improvised explosive devices.
Described by the police as a guerrilla fighter and close accomplice of a local area commander operating in Jharkhand, accused Shiv Kumar is a resident of Ranchi. Acting on a tip-off received by Constable Pradip of the Special Investigation Team that the suspect would come to Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar in Outer Delhi, the police arrested him on Wednesday.
During interrogation, Shiv purportedly disclosed that he had joined the CPI (Maoist) in 2008. “He is a close accomplice of Ravinder, area commander of Narkopi region near Ranchi. He has been trained in the handling of a range of firearms. He has used both remote-control and manually actuated landlines. He also has expertise in laying booby traps.”
The accused had in November 2010 gunned down a ration dealer at Lohardaga in Jharkhand as he had donated some land to the police to set up a picket. About a year ago, he was purportedly part of an ambush on security forces in the Dhardhariya jungle in which almost 400 naxals killed 11 and injured 50 security personnel. Their prime motive was to loot police weapons.
In August last year, the accused and his accomplices were surrounded by security personnel and in the ensuing encounter the area commander of Garhwa was killed. The next month Shiv and other naxals planted bombs around some government schools in Latehar as they were being used by the security forces as temporary shelters. “Shiv had planted landmines near a school and when the security personnel came to the school for a temporary stay, the naxals exploded the improvised devices injuring a large number of personnel,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Sanjay Kumar Jain.
In November last year, the accused and nearly 500 other naxals were camping in the Saryu jungles of Jharkhand when the police surrounded them. However, he managed to evade them. A few days later, they had another account with a police team and two commanders were killed during the cross-fire. As the security forces intensified the anti-naxal operations, the accused fled to Ranchi and then came to the Capital.
