Probe agencies, joint forces taste success in 2010

With several top Naxal leaders in their net and many others killed, the investigating agencies and the joint forces in West Bengal wrapped up the year 2010 on a note of success.

The arrest of five top Naxal leaders including state committee secretary Kanchan alias Sudip Chongdar and three state committee members by Kolkata Special Task Force from various parts of Kolkata on December 4 was a major blow to the ultras.

According to the STF, Kanchan was an important policy maker and considered the brain behind the attack on the Sildah EFR camp in West Medinipur district where 24 EFR personnel and two others were killed by Maoists.

Additional Commissioner of Police and STF chief Rajiv Kumar termed their arrest as a major success for police and the investigating agencies.

The state CID also achieved major success with the arrest of Venkateshwar Reddy alias Telegu Dipak from the southern fringes of Kolkata last year.

Dipak, considered one of the top leaders in the Naxal hierarchy and reported to be ‘in-charge of West Bengal affairs’, besides being a close aide of Naxal supremo Kishenji alias Koteshwar Rao, was arrested by the CID in March.

CBI, investigating the Jnaneswari train disaster of May 28 which claimed 159 lives in West Medinipur district, could arrest Bapi Mahato, the main accused from near Jamshedpur in Jharkhand with the assistance of Jharkhand Police in June.

A prime suspect Umakanta Mahato was also killed in an encounter with the joint forces in August.

The joint forces eliminated Sidhu Soren, the supreme commander of Sidhu Kanu Gana Militia the armed wing of the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities, and five aides in Goaltore area in West Midnapore.

Though top leaders like Kishenji, Akash and Sasadhar Mahato were yet to be caught, police claimed that there were occasions when they escaped narrowly.

PCPA secretary Manoj Mahato was arrested by the joint forces from his ancestral home in Birkanr village, near Lalgarh in 2010.

According to official figures over 60 Maoists were killed and over 400 were either arrested or surrendered.

The Naxals killed 110 persons including seven security personnel during the year.