Top Maoist leader Kobad Gandhy, who has been working underground for the last two decades, was arrested from Bhikaji Kama locality in national capital by the Delhi police’s Special Cell.
Gandhy, who goes by nom de guerres Saleem and Rajan, was produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody on Monday.
Gandhy is a member in the CPI (Maoist) Central Committee, and the Polit Bureau — the two decision-making bodies of the ultra-Left rebel party spearheading the revolutionary movement in 17 States across India.
The arrested leader is widely acclaimed as an ideologue who was entrusted with the responsibility of spreading the revolutionary movement to urban areas. He was known to be functioning from Delhi.
His arrest comes as a major blow to the Maoist party. Gandhy, a native of Maharashtra, was ideologically so strong that he was looking after international relations wing of the party.
He was instrumental in the formation of the Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties in South Asia (CCOMPOSA) and was liaising with leadership of the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN), before the latter deviated from the path of Protracted People’s War (PPW) and joined parliamentary politics.
Gandhy, sources say, was also in-charge of the South West Regional Bureau (SWRB), coordinating the naxalite movement in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.