RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh police on Sunday arrested a BJP leader and his accomplice in the strife-torn Dantewada for allegedly supplying a tractor and other goods to the Maoists in south Bastar.
Jagat Pujari, BJP vice-president in Dantewada was under surveillance after the district police got inputs about him being involved in arranging goods and other materials for the rebels in Abujhmad.
“Pujari has been in various contract works in the region for the past ten years and we were getting inputs about various items being supplied by him to the Maoists. Recently he is said to have delivered 100 radio sets, printer, laptops among other items through some mediators. We have put him under observations. To avoid getting noticed by the police, Pujari bought a tractor on the name of some local villager, to a delivered Maoist leader Ajay Alami in the Maoist hotbed of Abujhmad”, Abhishek Pallava, Dantewada superintendent of police, told New Indian Express.
Father of Pujari was a two-time legislator from 1989-96, the police informed. His brother is a president of Barsur Nagar panchayat.
The police found that the seized tractor was procured on forged documents, apparently without original bill. Ramesh Usendi who was conniving with the Pujari was also taken into police custody.
After the supply chain of the Maoists got badly disrupted owing to earlier demonetisation, aggressive anti-Maoist operations and now the lockdown, the cadres of the left-wing extremists have begun carrying out agriculture practice in the interior areas with the support of the local villagers, Pallava added.
The Dantewada police believe there could be more persons involved in such modus operandi as the urban suppliers for the Maoists. “The investigation will unearth others working in collusion with the rebels”, the SP stated.
The case against Pujari has been registered under various sections of the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005.