KOLKATA: A Maoist couple, Mangal and Malati, who were active in Jharkhand’s Saranda forest region, surrendered before Kolkata Police Commissioner Ajay Nand at the Lalbazar police headquarters on Friday and handed over an AK-47 and an INSAS rifle.
The Jharkhand Police had announced cash rewards of Rs 5 lakh for Mangal and Rs 2 lakh for Malati. Both hail from West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district but were active in Jharkhand.
“Mangal hails from Salboni in Paschim Medinipur district, while Malati is a resident of Gopiballavpur in Jhargram. They moved to Jharkhand and were involved in Maoist activities, mainly in the Saranda forest region,” Nand told reporters.
They left Saranda this year after facing problems in carrying out Maoist activities and decided to surrender before the police.
Nand said Mangal was close to slain Maoist Mallojula Koteswara Rao, better known as Kishenji, and faced six to seven cases in Jharkhand.
According to the police, Mangal joined the Maoist group in 2010, during the Left regime in West Bengal, when the rebel outfit People’s Committee was active in Salboni. He moved to Jharkhand after a change in power with the formation of the Trinamool Congress government in 2011.
Mangal was initially active in the Dalma region before moving to Saranda. Malati also left Jhargram and joined him there.
The police said Maoists were finding it increasingly difficult to remain active in Jharkhand’s Saranda region and began leaving the area this year.
Around 13 Maoists from West Bengal were among those active there. Several of them have been arrested, the police said.
Explaining their decision to surrender, Mangal said, “Social transformation is not possible through armed struggle. We have decided to leave that path and return to the mainstream of life in society. That is why we have come forward to surrender before the West Bengal government.”
Earlier, Maoist leader Pushpa, also known as Shakuntala, surrendered before the Kolkata Police in June, one month after the BJP formed its first government in Bengal, defeating the Trinamool Congress. Another Maoist, Sradhya Biswas, also known as Bela, was arrested in the Uttar Kashipur area in May.
West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, while addressing a programme in Jhargram this afternoon, recalled the trouble triggered by Maoist activities in the state’s forest belts. He said, “Jungle Mahal has suffered a lot because of Maoist activities of the People’s Committee. People with surnames such as Mahato, Hansda, Soren, Murmu and Maji have been tortured on suspicion of being Maoists. I have fought against such kinds of torture for several years, from 2009 to 2012. In 2012, I organised a massive rally in Birhari, and after that, the rebels had left the areas.”
