Senior superintendent of police Akhilesh Kumar Jha (in red) with the arrested Maoists at his office in Jamshedpur on Saturday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Those who witnessed the murder of senior JMM leader Sunil Mahto in 2007 later spoke of seeing a woman Maoist jumping up and down on the dying MP’s chest, holding up her gun in triumph.

On Friday night, when the police arrested six Naxalites from Chakulia in Ghatshila sub-division, one of those netted turned out to be 26-year-old Jamuna Singh alias Ila alias Jayanti — the same woman wanted in connection with Mahto’s killing.

Jayanti apart, the other five arrested were all from Bengal and were identified as her husband and Belpahadi resident Surya Dev Singh (28), Nitai Das of North 24-Parganas, Burdwan resident Nitya Nand Thakur, Som Prakash Chakraborty of Chakdah in Nadia district and Prasenjit Chakraborty of Calcutta. The last four are between 20 and 22 years old.

All six, considered to be CPI (Maoist) ideologues, were arrested from Jobi and Jameera villages on the Bengal border. While Jayanti and the four from Bengal were arrested from Jobi where they were holding a meeting, her husband was nabbed from Jameera. After initial interrogations, East Singhbhum police produced the six before the media in Jamshedpur on Saturday evening.

East Singhbhum senior superintendent of police Akhilesh Kumar Jha said that the rebels were trying to consolidate their position at Chakulia and its adjoining areas in Bengal.

According to the police, the Maoists were trying to convert Chakulia and Belpahadi into a second Lalgarh, for which they had started mobilising support of local villagers over the last six months. “The rebels were trying to gain a foothold in the region by holding regular meetings and organising cultural programmes to win the hearts of villagers,” revealed a police officer who took part in Friday’s operation.

Police said Prasenjit, Nitya Nand, Nitai and Som Prakash — who had all been staying in Calcutta — had come to Chakulia on Jayanti’s request to review Naxalite activities and provide further guidance.

While Nitai is a software expert, Nitya Nand is a member of RDF, a front outfit of the CPI (Maoist). During interrogation, Prasenjit claimed to be a representative of a local television channel in Calcutta. Som Prakash is the son of Gaur Narayan Chakraborty, a CPI (Maoist) leader currently in jail.

Soon after the arrests, the police recovered a poster, in which the Maoists called for the killing of former West Midnapore SP Manoj Kumar Verma and SP Jhargram, Praveen Kumar.

Intriguingly, the police also recovered a list of names of senior CPM and Trinamul Congress leaders, including Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and some of her cabinet colleagues as well as former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee. The police are yet to ascertain the significance of the list.

Police quoted the arrested rebels as saying they had great expectations from the Trinamul Congress government in Bengal.

“Acting on a tip off, the police and the seventh battalion of the CRPF raided the two villages and nabbed the six, of whom Jayanti is a member of the Belpahadi armed squad,” said Jha.

During interrogation Jayanti confessed to her involvement in Mahto’s killing. “It was an order from the top to eliminate Mahto,” a senior police officer quoting Jayanti said.

Mahto was assassinated while he watching a football match at Baguria village March 4, 2007. JMM activist Prabhakar Mahto and two bodyguards of the MP were also killed that day.

The arrested Naxalites would be produced before a local magistrate late Sunday evening before they are remanded to judicial custody.