12-day police remand for five Maoist leaders

KOLKATA - Five Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) leaders were Wednesday remanded to 12 days’ police custody by a court here.

The quintet, including a state committee member of the guerrilla outfit, were arrested from South 24 Parganas district Tuesday and produced at the Alipore Court Wednesday by the Criminal Investigation Department of state police.

“They have been remanded to CBI custody till July 12,” said CID deputy inspector general Anuj Sharma.

All of them have been charged under various sections of the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

The quintet included Madhusudan Mandal alias Narayan, secretary of the Maoist outfit’s Nandigram zonal committee in East Mindapore district who was recently inducted into the state committee.

The police had been looking for Madhusudan Mandal, responsible for expanding the Maoists’ organisation in the Nandigram belt, for the last 10 months.

Another member of the Nandigram zonal committee in East Midnapore district, Siddhartha Mandal, was also arrested along with Madhusudan.

The other three were members of the party, which is engaged in guerrilla warfare across several states in the country to seize state power.

The CID is now on the lookout for a woman Maoist leader, Debalina Chakraborty, who resides in an area under Tollygunge police station in south Kolkata.

“We got a letter from one of the arrested leaders, Rajesh Mandal, which was written by one Debu to Madhusudan Mandal. The letter urged Madhusudan to call a meeting of the Nandigram Zonal committee. On investigation, we have found that this Debu is Debalian Chakraborty,” Sharma said.

The Maoists had played a key but covert role in the 2007-2008 movement against the chemical hub project in Nandigram which forced the state government to scrap the project.

The Leftwing rebels are now mainly active in three western districts - West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia - in the state.