Police custody for Maoist leader linked to Silda attack

KOLKATA - A court in west Bengal’s West Midnapore district Monday sent a Maoist leader, suspected of involvement in the attack on a camp of the Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) February last year, to police custody for seven days, police said.

“Maoists squad member Bishnu Soren alias Rimil was arrested Sunday night for his alleged involvement in the attack on the Eastern Frontier Rifles camp Feb 15, 2010 and presented before the court this (Monday) afternoon. The court remanded him to police custody for seven days,” Jhargram police district superintendent Praveen Tripathi said.

Rimil was arrested from his home in Godamdanga area near Binpur. He was not only accused in Silda attack, in which 24 EFR troopers were killed, but also in ten other cases including murder, sedition, abduction, explosion, said Tripathi.

“Two letters written by Maoist leader and state committee member Sashadhar Mahato were also recovered from Rimil. The letters were addressed to some other person, whose code name was ‘H’ and was assigned to eliminate 13 Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leaders of Manikpara in Jhargram. Rimil was asked to act as the courier,” said a senior police officer.

“The state police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) probing the Silda case submitted the charge-sheet against 28 alleged Maoist leaders and supporters. They also submitted the names of 63 others against whom charges could not be framed as their detailed address was not available with the investigation agency,” said the officer.

Maoists are active in three western districts of the state - West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia.