A file picture of two arrested Maoists in Bokaro

Bokaro, Jan. 6: Misson Maoists received a major fillip in the year gone by with the Bokaro police ending up with 15 prized catches.

The men in uniform here set a new standard for themselves by not only launching a massive crackdown on rebels, but also ending up making big arrests.

Though the total number of Maoists landing in police net last year comes to about 36, as many as 15 of them are big names, including top Andhra Pradesh leader Narasimha Reddy, alias Rahulji, Ramesh Mandal and Anandji.

The police tasted their first success as early as January, 2010, with the arrest of sub-zonal commander Ramjit Manjhi, alias Badhan, with two pistols and several cartridges from Jaridih. This was followed by arrests of three more Maoist leaders from Petarwar — Baleshwar Ganjhu alias Baleshwar Mahto, Pandu Manjhi and Mohammad Qutubuddin. Four claymore bombs, nine sophisticated arms and dozens of cartridges were found on them.

The three spilled the beans and more rebels were nabbed. Four hardcore Maoists — Jaleshwar Mahto, Shivcharan Manjhi, Talo Marndi and Vijay Ravidas — were rounded up in April with three wireless sets, 190 pieces of strikers, 125 pieces of springs used for making explosives and a huge cache of arms and ammunition.

In May, the police tasted major success when they got hold of top female commander Urmila Devi. The woman was carrying Rs 3.64 lakh, 2,000 detonators, 7kg of ammonium nitrate, 50kg of gun powder, 1,060m of fuse wire and four firearms. The next month, Birju Manjhi and Krishna Prasad Mahto were arrested from Nawadih.

As police continued to step up pressure, Maoist leader Varun Manjhi surrendered along with one quintal of ammonium nitrate, four rifles, two pistols and 410 cartridges of different bores. On the basis of the information provided by him, Phulchand Manjhi was arrested.

But the police got the biggest shot in the arm with the arrest of Narasimha Reddy, who was taking refuge in Bokaro and working for the expansion of Maoist movement. Reddy, who was carrying a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head, was not aware that Bokaro police was hot on his trail for the past year.

In the month of August, one of the main accused in MLA Mahendra Singh murder case, Ramesh Mandal alias Udayan, was arrested. Udayan, who was carrying an award of Rs 9 lakh on his head, had been frequently changing his residence to avoid arrest for the past five years but at the end the long arm of the law caught him.

The success run of the police force continued with the arrest of CPI(Maoist)’s research analysis wing chief Anandji, who ran a chemical laboratory for the red brigade. He also had a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh on his head. Along with Anandji two other top leaders, Ram Kumar Pandit and Jai Prakash, were held from Chadrapura.

Patting his men, Bokaro SP Saket Singh said: “We had a good run against the Maoists in the last year. Although Naxalites are still active in Jhumra and Uparghat we will try our best to drive them out.”