Arms and ammunition dumped by Maoists, including two rifles looted from security personnel, were today recovered from a rebel stronghold area at Dangrapahar of Ghatsila sub-division in Jharkhand, police said today.
Based on inputs given by a hard core naxal Sonali Tudu, arrested on January 3, a search operations was launched jointly by District Armed Police and CRPF yesterday during which the arms and ammunition dumped by Maoists were found, Senior Superintendent of Police Anoop T Mathew said.
Addressing a press conference here, Mathew, who was accompanied by the Commandant of 193 Battalion of CRPF S K Upadhyay and Additional Superintendent of Police (Ops) Pranav Anand Jha, said Sonali gave information about six to seven dumping places.
Accordingly, a joint team of security personnel conducted search in four dumping places and recovered a self-loading rifle, one 303 rifle, both looted from the security personnel, an improvised Musket regular rifle along with around 50 live ammunition, electronic items and explosives for preparing IED, Maoist flags and literature, multi-circuit meter, uniforms and daily core items.
Among the items recovered was a book titled "Mamata Bandhopadyay ke Jemon Dekhechi" (Mamata Bandhopadhyay as seen by me) authored by one Deepak Kumar Ghosh.
Sonali, a resident of Lalgarh who was active in the Lalgarh movement in West Midnapore of West Bengal, had also informed the police that some cash was also dumped but it might have been removed for exchange following demonetisation, Mathew said.
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Sonali's husband Supai Tudu, who was the bodyguard of prominent Maoist leader Koteshwar Rao alias Kishenji and second-in-command of the CPI (Maoists) in East Singhbhum district, was killed in the encounter on January 3 last in Gurabandha .
Based on the arsenal numbers of the fire-arms, Mathew said the district police was verifying whether it belonged to the district police or the CRPF.
Expressing confidence that East Singhbhum district will be free of Maoists activities soon, Mathew said only two Maoist squads including one led by top Maoist leader of the district Kanu Munha were still operating in the distirct.
Mathew said there were eight encounters in 2016, including five in Gurabandha and three in the Bengal border.
While some naxals were killed in the encounters, some others surrendered under pressure from the police camp, he added.
