Guns ready, leader missing

Ranchi, Sept. 21: He was travelling in a car with 15 detonators and Rs 4,500 in cash when police, acting on a tip-off, stopped the vehicle around midnight on Thursday-Friday at Rania Bazar (Khunti) and arrested the occupants.

Misir Besra alias Bhaskar alias Sunirmal, said the police, is a prize catch and has been the chief of the eastern regional bureau of the underground Maoists.

One of his aides, Narendra Tewari who was travelling with him, was also arrested. The car apparently belonged to the Maoists and was not hired on rent.

No Maoist leader of his stature has ever been arrested in Jharkhand during the past seven years, claimed DIG (personnel) R.K. Mallik at the police headquarters on Friday while briefing the media.

Besra, he claimed, was a politburo member of the Maoist Communist Centre and occupied a senior position in the Communist Party of India (Maoist) formed after the merger of MCC and People’s War.

Besra masterminded the ambush at Baliba, Saranda forest, in April, 2004 in which 49 security personnel died. He is said to have been involved in violent attacks on the police from Topchanchi in 2001 to Chandrapura in 2004.

The DIG also claimed that Besra had planned and executed attacks at Jhumra in June, 2005 and at Rania the previous year. He was also in charge of recruiting people and spreading Maoism in the Saranda region, briefed Mallik.

Originally from Giridih, Besra, who studied in Dhanbad, is believed to have joined the Maoists when he was still in college, rising quickly through the ranks.

Coinciding with the arrival here of a central team headed by the Cabinet Secretary for a review, the prize catch could not have been held at a more opportune moment by the Jharkhand police.

The central team begins its review tomorrow.

Mallik lauded Rania police for nabbing the wanted Maoist and singled out Srikant Singh, Digvijay Singh and other policemen at Rania for special mention.

Asked to comment on the lynching of three alleged thieves in Ramgarh last night, Mallik condemned the act. People had no right to take law in their hands and those who flout the law would be booked by the police.

Senior police officials of the state, he said, had held several rounds of meetings with the central team including special secretary (internal secretary), L.M. Kumaut, joint Secretary (home) Dinesh Singh and inspector-general (Naxalite operation) D.M. Mitra.

“The need for more Centre-State co-ordination to contain Naxalism was felt in our discussion,” said Mallick.