Ranajit Burman being taken to the court of the chief judicial magistrate in Malda. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, Dec. 31: A Maoist action squad leader wanted in several murder, arson and rioting cases in Malda district, was arrested yesterday evening from Krishnagar railway station in Nadia.

Ranajit Barman, a member of of the CPI (Maoist), had been evading arrest since 2005. He is suspected to have had a hand in the explosion at the fishermen’s co-operative office at Bulbulchandi, 22km from here, in which five persons were killed. Several others were injured in the blast three years ago.

Last evening, Ranajit, a Bankura-Nadia-Burdwan-Murshidabad zonal committee member of the outfit, had been standing on the railway platform, when a GRP patrol team spotted him.

The 45-year-old man started running on seeing the law enforcers. This made the police suspicious and they gave him chase along the tracks and caught him.

The Nadia police handed him over to their counterparts in Malda this morning after his identity was established. Ranjit was earlier a zonal committee member of the north Bengal unit of the party.

In 2006, before the Assembly elections, CPM MLA from Habibpur Khagen Murmu had been attacked, allegedly by Ranajit and his men. Murmu’s car had been set on fire and an attempt had been made to burn alive the five occupants in the car, including the MLA who was campaigning.

The same year, an AK 47 was seized from Ranajit’s house in Bamongola, 45km from here. His wife fled the area soon after the incident.

During interrogation, Barman told the policemen that he had been “in charge” of Chapra in Nadia for the past three months after local Maoist leader Bapi Debnath was arrested.

Barman was produced in the court of the chief judicial magistrate of Malda, who remanded him in police custody for seven days.

The deputy superintendent of police (headquarters), Shyam Singh, said five Maoists from Malda had been missing. One of them was Ranajit. The other four are Lakshmi (Ranajit’s wife), Prashanta Das, Lata Murmu and Nuru Mahatal.

A senior intelligence official said after committing the blast in Bulbulchandi, all five had taken shelter in Nandigram. Later they shifted to Krishnagar.

The police are also investigating if Barman had any role in the explosion on the New Jalpaiguri-Haldibari Passenger train at Jalpaiguri’s Belakoba in 2006, a senior officer said. Ten people were killed.

Before being produced in court, Barman told journalists: “It is true that I am a Maoist. But I had never murdered anybody.”