In what is considered a major success for the police, Sadanala Ramakrishna alias RK, stated to be the head of the central technical committee of the CPI (Maoist), was arrested here on Wednesday. A mechanical engineer from Karimnagar district of Andhra Pradesh, he is believed to have been entrusted with carrying out Maoist activities in West Bengal after the death in November of the outfit's polit bureau member Kishenji.
Four other CPI (Maoist) activists were also arrested. A city court remanded all the five in police custody till March 13. “We have booked Ramakrishna and the others for waging a war against the State and also under the Arms Act,” Subhas Chandra Gupta, Chief Police Prosecutor of the court, told journalists.
Ramakrishna had been arrested along with associate Dipak Kumar, a resident of Chhattisgarh, from the College Street area here. The city police nabbed the others — Sukumar Mondal, Bapi Mudi and Sambhu Charan Pal, all said to be residents of the State — from the Beniapukur area and seized materials used in making rocket launchers and other explosives from a workshop in the same area.
ADVERTISEMENT
A police statement said the operation was conducted jointly with the Andhra Pradesh Police.
The accused were involved in acquisition and manufacture of firearms, rocket launchers and grenades. They supplied firearms to Maoist outfits across the country.
“Subversive documents”, Maoist literature, drawings of machine parts and Rs. 5 lakh in cash were seized from the accused.
ADVERTISEMENT
Twenty-five pieces of six-holed metal sockets used in making rocket launchers were recovered from the Beniapukur workshop.