NEW DELHI: Following disclosure made by Dinesh Gope, the arrested leader of People's Liberation Front of India (PLFI) during custodial interrogation, the National Investigation Agency, in joint operations with the Jharkhand Police, has made another seizure of a large amount of explosives, arms and ammunition from three districts of Jharkhand.
Information gathered from the leader of the PLFI a Naxal outfit, who has been in NIA custody for the last 8 days since his arrest on 21 May, has led the agency teams to a location in Jhariatoli, Garai, under police station Rania in Khunti district on Monday from where 62.3 kg of Gelatin and 732 rounds of 5.56 mm ammunition were recovered.
On the same day, one Pistol, 11 rounds of 5.56 mm ammunition and 30 rounds of 303 ammunition were seized from Kisni village in Kamdara area of Gumla district. Later, on Tuesday, two IEDs were also seized from the forest hill of Mahuatoli, under police station Mahabuang in district Simdega by the NIA-state police team.
Last week on Friday the NIA sleuths along with the Jharkhand police had made another seizure of a huge cache of ammunition from a dense forest in Kamdara area of district Gumla of Jharkhand in the PLFI terror funding case. According to NIA sources the seizure included 1245 rounds of 7.62 MM and 271 rounds of 5.56 MM ammunition. The seized ammunition was received at Siksohara, Nalanda (Bihar) about two years ago. It had been carefully stashed away for eventual delivery to PLFI operatives and cadres for carrying acts of terror and violence.
Dinesh Gope, who has been absconding from India was arrested by the NIA in Delhi on May 21 after he was nabbed and brought back into the country from Nepal, where he was running a dhaba.
Gope alias Kuldeep Yadav has been involved in 102 criminal cases and had a reward of Rs 30 lakh on his head – with Rs 25 lakh declared by Jharkhand Police and the remaining Rs 5 lakh by the NIA. A resident of Khunti in Jharkhand Gope was earlier charge-sheeted by the NIA in the case relating to the recovery of demonetized currency of Rs. 25.38 lakhs from the operatives of PLFI.
According to NIA sources, more than 102 criminal cases are registered against the accused Gope in Jharkhand, Bihar and Odisha. Most of these cases relate to murders, abductions, threats, extortion, and raising funds for the PLFI, a militant Maoist outfit formed in 2007 in Jharkhand and also a splinter group of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist). He has been on the lookout list of the police for almost two decades since his involvement in the first crime came to be known.
On February 3, 2022, an encounter had taken place between a Dinesh-led PLFI squad and security personnel in the forest area under Gudri Police station of West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. Several rounds were fired in the encounter before the rebels sneaked into the forest and Dinesh Gope managed to escape. He had been absconding since then, and had been taking shelter at different places while making all efforts to re-establish the PLFI’s stronghold in Jharkhand.
Gope used to extort money and execute attacks through his PLFI team members to terrorize businessmen, contractors and the public at large, NIA investigations have shown, a NIA spokesperson said. The accused, along with his associates, was involved in depositing the demonetized currency in a bank account at a Petrol Pump, to be later collected through levy/extortion. The illegal money was then invested through banking channels and dubious Shell Companies in the name of close associates and family members of the accused Dinesh Gope, an NIA spokesperson said.
The case was initially registered in November 2016 at PS Bero, Ranchi, and re-registered by NIA in January 2018. The police had filed the first Chargesheet against four persons on January 9, 2017. NIA filed the first Supplementary Chargesheet in the case against 11 accused, including Dinesh Gope.