In a major breakthrough, the Chhattisgarh police on Monday arrested six Maoists allegedly invo-lved in the April 6 massacre of 76 CRPF personnel at Dantewada, at Kottabura, barely 4 km from Chint-alnar, where the killings took place. Those arrested were self-styled Naxal commander Barsa Lakshma, Oyam Hidma, Podiami Hidma, Kawasi Budra, Oya Ganga and Durga Joga.
“All are members of Jan Militia (people’s army), a village-level military wing of the outlawed CPI (Ma-oist). They confessed their participation in the attack,” Dantewada SP Amresh Mishra told this newspaper.
This is considered significant development as it is the first time that the police could get details about the Maoist ambush plan “from the horses’ mouth”, a senior police officer said. He added that interrogation of the arrested men could throw light on “what actually went wrong that day”.
A local Maoist unit had found a wireless set dropped by a CRPF unit, which was handed over to a local operations leader. With this, the Maoists were able to track the CRPF jawans’ movement.