Asim Mandal, the last surviving Maoist central committee member, has been arrested in West Bengal’s East Midnapore district, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Thursday.
The six Maoists were believed to have left West Singhbhum and holed up in East Singhbhum and neighbouring West Bengal’s Purulia, Jhargram and West Midnapore. In August, police in Jharkhand’s East Singhbhum announced a ₹ 1.34 crore reward for information about the whereabouts of six Maoists, including Mandal, who had a ₹ 1 crore bounty.
“No extremist ideology will be allowed to jeopardize the safety & security of the People and jeopardize the development of our State. The law will take its strictest course to demolish any such audacious attempt,” Adhikari wrote on X. Misir Besra, a Maoist Politburo member, was arrested in Jharkhand’s Dhanbad on July 28. Jharkhand Police last month said only 18 Maoists were at large, including Mandal. They added that 113 Maoists have been arrested from January to August, 50 have surrendered, and 22 have been killed. Union home minister Amit Shah told Parliament this year that the March 31 deadline for ending Left-wing extremism across the country had been met. Shah said 4,839 Maoists surrendered, 706 were killed, and 2,218 were arrested and jailed over the three years of heightened anti-Maoist operations.
He said the state government will not tolerate any attempt to revive or expand the network of “Red Terror” in the state. Jharkhand Police chief Tadasha Mishra had then said that after Besra, Mandal’s arrest was only a matter of time.
