KOLKATA: A Special Task Force (STF) of the Kolkata Police on Thursday arrested top Maoist leader Asim Mondal alias Akash, officials said.
Akash was nabbed by an STF team from his father-in-law's residence in Lalat in the Patashpur area of Purba Medinipur district in the early hours of Thursday.
The Maoist leader was wanted in around 55 cases across three states and carried a combined bounty of more than Rs 2.20 crore in Jharkhand and Odisha.
“I commend the Officers and Personnel of the @KolkataPolice STF in successfully tracking and apprehending Asim Mandal @ Akash, Central Committee Member and Secretary of the West Bengal State Committee-I, CPI (Maoist), from Lalat; Patashpur, Purba Medinipur.” "Evading law enforcement for more than 15 years across inter-state forest belts, his (Akash's) apprehension on the basis of sharp technical intelligence demonstrates the exceptional operational competence of our police force," Adhikari said in a social media post.
"I want to make it categorically clear that the West Bengal government will not tolerate any attempt to revive or expand the network of 'red terror' within our state borders.
No extremist ideology will be allowed to jeopardise the safety and security of the people and jeopardise the development of our state.
The law will take its strictest course to demolish any such audacious attempt," he added.
Akash, a central committee member and secretary of the West Bengal State Committee-I of the CPI (Maoist), was arrested from Lalat in the Patashpur area.
He is considered the ideological successor and former junior colleague of Kishenji (Mallojula Koteswara Rao), who led the CPI (Maoist) until his death in a police encounter in 2011.
Akash was among a few members of the central committee of the Maoist outfit who had not surrendered before the police despite organisational setbacks suffered by the red guerrillas across the country.
The 65-year-old Maoist leader, who hails from Chandrakona in Paschim Medinipur district, has been associated with ultra-left politics since the 1980s.
Initially, he joined the People's War Group (PWG) and later held important organisational positions in CPI (Maoist) units in Bengal and neighbouring Jharkhand.
He played a leading role in the Lalgarh movement in Paschim Medinipur district during the CPI(M)-led Left Front rule in the state in 2006-07. He became the state secretary of the CPI (Maoist) after the arrest of his party colleague Sudip Chongdar in 2010.
He was never willing to surrender before the police and had recently come to his father-in-law's residence in Patashpur seeking financial help, according to sources. His wife is also a member of the Maoist outfit.
Sources said the Kolkata Police STF had been keeping watch on his relative's house in Patashpur for some time.
The STF team seized several organisational documents and books from him.
Ranjit Sur of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) demanded that the police produce him before the court immediately and recognise him as a political prisoner.