Top Maoist behind attack on EFR caught in Kolkata
Kolkata, March 2: The West Bengal CID arrested top Maoist leader Venkateswar Reddy, alias Telugu Dipak, from a bus stand in the Behala area of Kolkata on Tuesday. A member of the Maoists’ central military commission, he is believed to have taken a leading position in the Maoist attack on the Eastern Frontier Rifles camp at Sildah.
Believed to have been “very close” to CPI(Maoist) politburo member Kishenji, Dipak had been in the thick of the Maoist movement in Lalgarh, and had also led the Maoists who “passively” supported the Nandigram agitation against the CPI(M)-led government in 2007.
Confirming the arrest to this newspaper, state DGP Bhupinder Singh said: “We have arrested Telugu Dipak. He is a big catch. He is a member of the CMC. We are interrogating him.”
“He has had a role to play in almost all big Maoist attacks in the recent past, right from the Lalgarh movement to Nandigram,” added the DGP, without giving further details.
Sources said Dipak is believed to be leader of the Maoists’ Jharkhand-Bengal-Bihar-Orissa regio-nal committee. Intelligence sources said Dipak is believed to have frequently visited Kolkata to meet urban Maoist leaders in the city. On the other hand, his presence was also reported in Junglemahal, where he is believed to have trained the Maoist cadre to prepare and handle explosives. Dipak specialises in improvised explosive devises, police sources said.
Dipak is wanted in several cases in West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Orissa. He is believed to have sneaked into West Midnapore on February 14, a day before the Maoists attacked the Sildah camp.
Monalisa Chaudhuri
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