RANCHI: Tightening the noose over the banned Maoist outfit, People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI), the Jharkhand Police has decided to name and shame its top leaders.
The police have released photographs of seven wanted Maoists, including PLFI chief Dinesh Gope, who is carrying a bounty of Rs 25 lakh on his head.
According to an official release by Jharkhand Police, anybody who gives information related to these wanted Maoists will be given cash prize equivalent to the bounty amount.
The informer’s name and identity will not be revealed. Besides that of Gope, the other Maoists whose photographs and details have been released are Jidan Guria, Tilkeshwar Gope, Awdhesh Kumar Jaisawal, Ajay Purty, Sanichar Surin and Mangra Lugun.
“This is part of our strategy to neutralise PLFI rebels through sustained planned operations,” said a senior police officer. Gope is the most dreaded among all these rebels and is also wanted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA ) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in terror funding and money laundering cases.
His two wives, Hira Devi and Shakuntala Kumari, were arrested by the NIA and incriminating documents were seized from their Kolkata houses in January this year, but Gope remains elusive. The police crackdown comes amid renewed attempts the PLFI to increase its footprint.
With its shrinking cadre base, the PLFI rebels have been making a fresh bid to increase their strength by putting posters appealing to people to join them.
Because of the lockdown and other factors, the Maoist outfit also saw its coffers drained and as a result, cases of Red rebels demanding levy from local businessmen and contractors have increased. Last Friday, they pasted a poster outside the office of state Lok Janshakti Party president and businessman Virendra Pradhan demanding Rs 2 crore and threatened to kill him if he failed to pay.