Guwahati:
Veteran Maoist leader and member of its central committee, Arun Kumar Bhattacharjee (70), alias “Kanchan Da” was arrested from the tri-junction of Cachar-Dima Hasao districts of Assam and Tamenglong district of Manipur, on March 6.
The crime branch of Guwahati also nabbed his close associate, Akash Orang alias Rahul alias Kajal.
While, Bhattacharjee, hailing from Howrah, West Bengal, is the member of the Central Committee of Communist Party of India – Maoist (CPI-M), and one of the ideologues and strategists of the Maoist organisation, Orang is a member of Assam State Organising Committee of the CPI (Maoist), said Guwahati city commissioner of police (CoP) Hardeep Singh, addressing the press after the arrests.
The police also recovered a laptop, pen drive, a book on Maoist literature, and cash Rs 3.60 lakh from Bhattacharya’s possession.
A case under the relevant sections of 120/120B/121/121A/122/384 /302 of IPC, read with section 16/17/18/18B/19/20 of UA(P) Act, has been registered against them, Singh said.
Singh informed that Bhattacharjee was assigned the task to take the command of Assam and Northeast. He was an ex-Maoist Communist Centre member till 2004 and after that, has been a central committee member of CPI (Maoist) till date.
Singh, while giving details of the operation, said that additional DCP (Crime Branch) Numal Mahatta along with inspectors Sanjay Borgohain, Jyotirmoy Dutta of crime branch accompanied by Assam Police commandos conducted a massive search operation splitting the team into five groups, in suspected hideouts Thaligram, Nagadong and Patimara Tea Garden under Udarband police station of Cachar district.
“On March 6, at about 5 pm, when the team reached 16 Line of Patimara Tea Garden, they noticed an old man was trying to hide from the approaching search team. Instantly, the search team was able to apprehend the person and on questioning, he identified himself to be Kanchan Da,” he said.
“Another team conducted a search in a suspected house from where Orang was arrested,” the police commissioner further added.
He said that during interrogation, they confessed that they had concealed one laptop containing some valuable information at a place near Kumbha. Accordingly, the team rushed towards to the spot and recovered the laptop from a roadside jungle.
According to Singh, the CPI-M has been making attempts to expand its network in the Northeast. There also has been a lot of funds flowing from the organisation to the region, Singh said.
“They are trying to set up a ‘core committee’ in Assam to facilitate the command and control of the organisation and arrange a party Congress in the state for analysing the activities and further plan of action to accelerate Maoist activities with the assistance of other regional committees of India,” the police commissioner said.
“They have been here to arrange weapons for terror financing extortion to intensify the illegal activities. They are also trying to increase the membership and impart training to the comrades for the arms struggle,” Singh added.
He revealed that the Maoists are also planning to set up camps at various locations to coordinate with other similar organisations for unified action against the security forces as a part of a larger conspiracy to commit terrorist strikes.