West Bengal police arrest four suspected Maoists

WEST MIDNAPORE - The police and the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel arrested four suspected Maoists in a joint operation from Ranja forest in Salboni in West Bengal’s West Midnapore District.

West Midnapore Superintendent of Police (SP) Manoj Verma said the four suspected Maoists arrested on Friday are Rajesh Munda, Rajesh Hazda, Mangal Soren and Gopinath Mandi.

Verma further said one of the arrested Maoist Rajesh Munda was allegedly involved in the murder of a Member of Parliament.

“From the preliminary interrogation of the accused persons so far, we have collected information that, all these four persons, they were involved in, physically involved in the attack on Sankrail Police Station and at Shilda camp under Bindapur Police Station,” said Manoj Verma.

“Apart from that we have information from the interrogation of Rajesh Munda that he was also involved in the murder of a Member of Parliament (MP) in Jharkhand. We are verifying whether he was involved in the murder of late Sunil Mahato,” he added.

Verma further said the arrested Maoists have given details of the attacks on Sankrail Police Station and on Shilda camp indicating how they were organised and who were the participants.

Arms and ammunition have also been recovered from the arrested Maoists.

“We have recovered one 303 rifle, 20 rounds of 7.62 SLR, five rounds of 303 rifles, 10 detonators 8 gelatin sticks and some wire pieces. The Maoists looted the rifles on October 20, 2009 when they attacked Sankrail Police Station,” said Verma. (ANI)