June 21: Bapi Mahato was flown to Midnapore this afternoon because police did not want to risk driving him through Maoist territory even though the guerrillas may have disowned their foot soldier.

The prime accused in last month’s sabotage that left 150 Jnaneswari Express passengers dead had been arrested from a guesthouse on the outskirts of Jamshedpur yesterday.

Police officers said all arrangements had been made to bring Bapi by road after a court in Seraikela sent him to CBI custody this afternoon. But then the risks underlying the move dawned on them.

Most of the 200km road passes through dense forests where the Maoist writ runs. It takes around five hours to cover the distance and evening would have descended by the time the police reached Midnapore.

The risks ruled out the road plan, the police said. A call went to the BSF and its helicopter was requisitioned.

Senior officers in Bengal said never had a chopper been used to ferry a wanted criminal to the state. The MI-17 had so far only carried offi-cials in the Maoist-hit region.

West Midnapore superintendent of police Manoj Verma said: “The Maoist presence on the road, especially in the Jharkhand stretch, and the travelling time ruled out the plan to bring him by road.”

In February, the Maoists had abducted the block development officer of Dhalbhumgarh, through which the police would have passed had Bapi been brought by road. “On the West Midnapore side, the road runs through Lodhasuli and Chichira, where Maoists frequently set fire to vehicles at night,” an officer said.

There was another reason for flying Bapi, Verma added. “We needed him quickly in Midnapore to interrogate him in connection with cases apart from the Jnaneswari tragedy.”

At least 10 cases of murd- er and attempt to murder are pending against Bapi.

The CBI is likely to take him away to Calcutta after producing him in the Jhargram court tomorrow and the district police wanted to use the intervening night to grill him on the other cases. “We didn’t have much time and we didn’t want any risk. So, we brought him by air,” Verma said.

With Bapi came his arrested relative Bimal Mahato, whose name he had used to check in at the guesthouse. Jhar- gram subdivisional police offi- cer Syed Waqar Raja escort- ed them along with a posse of CBI and state police officers.

One of them helped Bapi out of the chopper at the parade grounds in the Midnapore police lines. Bapi’s head was wrapped in a cloth. He was wearing a maroon T-shirt and a dhoti. A black jeep drove them to a “safe house” 500m away.

In the Seraikela court, both Bapi and Bimal were charged with murder, attempt to murder, conspiracy and a slew of other offences.

Police sources in Jharkhand said Bapi had confessed to firing at the Howrah-Tata Steel Express last month. He was also among those who had blocked the Bhubaneswar Rajdhani at Banstala, near Jhargram, last October.

Bapi and Bimal were led out of the court, handcuffed, around 1pm. They reached Jamshedpur, 40km away, in two hours and were flown out around 4pm.

In Calcutta, Bengal police chief Bhupinder Singh said the Rs 1-lakh reward for help in arresting Bapi would be distributed among the cops involved in his arrest.