The arrest of Buriyari Narayana and Satyanarayan Reddy, Maoists from Telangana, in Jharkhand in the last week of August, has put the intelligence agencies on an alert and it is learnt that they are now probing the investment links of the banned CPI(Maoist), especially in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Based on close monitoring of the Maoists’ movements, the two were picked up by the Jharkhand police on August 30 from a hotel in Ranchi.
But what they recovered from the two Maoists had set the bells ringing at all SIB units in the Maoist-affected States.
The police recovered ₹25 lakh and about half-a-kg of gold in bars from the duo.
A senior officer from the intelligence department in Visakhapatnam said many top leaders were on the radar amid indications of investments in real estate and gold, through a chain of networks.
Buriyari Narayana was the brother of Buriyari Sudhakar, who is the chief of the CPI(Maoists) in Jharkhand. As per sources in the intelligence department, Narayana had met Sudhakar at a camp in the forest in Gumla district and was given the cash and gold to invest in real estate in various cities such as Hyderabad, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam.
The Maoists appear to have developed fondness for gold, as a contractor was caught at Ralagedda in Visakhapatnam agency in 2015 and the police recovered about 2 kg of gold coins from him.
On questioning, he had revealed that the gold was given by the Maoists to invest in real estate.
The Maoists use the contractors engaged in the business of tendu leaves and civil construction to stash away their cash. Post demonetisation, there was a huge rush to convert the liquid cash that was kept in the dumps into gold, said a senior police officer.
In most cases, it has also been seen that they use the link of former Maoists to invest on their behalf. In Visakhapatnam city itself, there are two such former Maoists who are into big-time real estate and quarrying business. “There is no confirmation yet, but we suspect that they have links with their former comrades,” said an officer from the Special Branch (Extremist wing).
Corruption rampant
There are many reports that corruption has seeped into the banned outfit that at one time had flourished on ideology.
As per reports, many senior leaders have investment links and they retain about 20 to 30% of what is collected in the form of extortion. “The entire leadership is not corrupt, there are still some committed persons, but with the weakening of both the Politburo and the Central Committee, the top rung committed leaders are not able to reign in the corrupt. And this is creating a rift among the leaders, who mostly hail from Andhra Pradesh and are from the upper caste, and the tribal cadres from Odisha and Chhattisgarh. The tribals are feeling that they are being used, while the leaders are enjoying the money,” said an officer, engaged in anti-Maoist operations in Andhra-Odisha Border.
Sources also suggest that there is also a growing rift between the MCCI cadres and leaders, who mostly hail from Bihar, and the present Maoist leadership.
The Communist Party of India (Maoist) was formed in 2004 with the merger of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist), People’s War (People’s War Group) and the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI). Sources say the MCCI cadres from Bihar are leading the corruption list, which is now also being taken up by cadres and leaders from Andhra and Telangana.
