Patna, May 30: Vineeta, an active member of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army of the Naxalites, is a hard nut to crack.

Even after sustained interrogation for over 12 hours, the officers of intelligence agencies and the police failed to elicit information from her about plans of Naxalite operations in the state.

The wife of senior Naxalite leader Amarlal Deo alias Nakul, Vineet alias Sunita, was arrested from a hotel at Imalichatti in Muzaffarpur town on Wednesday. Anup Thakur, the self-styled commander of the Koel-Sankha zone, was arrested with her. Vineeta’s husband is lodged in Darbhanga divisional jail.

Additional director-general of police (law and order) S.K. Bhardwaj said Vineeta was forwarded to Motihari Central Jail today for her alleged involvement in a Madhubani incident.

Anup was taken to Latehar in Jharkhand for interrogation in connection with 24 incidents of Naxalite violence in the neighbouring state.

Inspector-general of police (operations) Amit Kumar said Vineeta, 40, was evading arrest in connection with a landmine explosion near a bridge under the jurisdiction of Shyampur-Bhataha police station in Sheohar district, which had left five policemen, including the station house officer of Shyampur-Bataha police station Pravin Kumar Singh, dead in October 2010.

Describing Vineeta’s arrest a “prize catch”, Amit said it was being ascertained whether the Jharkhand police had announced any reward for her arrest. Though she belonged to Mahuli village under Hathauri police station in Muzaffarpur district, she was active both in Bihar and Jharkhand.

The IG (operations) said Vineeta trained new recruits to handle sophisticated weapons and was earlier arrested from the Jakkanpur police station area in Patna in 2004. Cadres of the military wing of the Naxalites also call her Pratima and Sweta.

IG Amit said the role of both the arrested Maoist leaders in the recent Chhattisgarh landmine explosion was being ascertained. He said: “During their interrogation, they denied taking part in the operations, which left 28 people dead and many others injured.”

Anup reportedly told the interrogators that the organisation was finding it difficult to recruit youths. As a result, it had started to offer Rs 10,000 per month for the newly recruited members in Bihar and Jharkhand. He attributed the reason to intensified police operations and the development projects in villages.