Bokaro, Feb. 4: Bokaro police arrested a top-rung CPI(Maoist) leader, Mohammed Hussain alias Anna Shankar (in picture), on Monday night.

The raid team was led by inspector Vijay Kumar, presently working for the Special Task Force (STF), which had in May 2008 rounded up Pramod Mishra who is considered to be No. 2 in the hierarchy of the rebel outfit.

Anna Shankar carries a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head, dead or alive. The 58-year-old Anna Shankar is also known as Sudhakar and Ramakant and hails from Jammikutta village of Karimnagar block in Andhra Pradesh (AP).

The STF team and the Intelligence Bureau had been tapping the phone of a close confidant of Anna Shankar for the past three months. The friend was staying at a rented house in the Gujarat colony of Chas (Bokaro) since August 2008. The phone surveillance started right after the arrest of Pramod Mishra. The STF team from Ranchi led by inspector Vijay Kumar arrived at Bokaro three days ago and started living incognito at a local hotel.

On Monday evening while Anna was about to leave on a motorcycle, STF jeeps intercepted his vehicle at Mamarkudur under Chas Muffasil police station area. The prized catch was then ferried to a CRPF camp.

Interrogation revealed that in the past eight months, the leader had formed an association — Bhagat Singh Yuva Manch — to woo displaced and unemployed youths. There are more than 70 cases pending against Anna who is a member of the central committee of north Telangana.

Talking to The Telegraph at the SP’s office today, Anna, who in 1975 worked as a miner at the Alidabad coal mines, stressed that he would rather die for his organisation than live as a prisoner.

SP (Bokaro) Priya Dubey lauded the police team’s efforts. “More arrests will follow soon,” she added.