A Maoist arrested under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and currently lodged in the Presidency Correctional Home here appeared in the State Level Eligibility Test (SLET) examination on Sunday, officials said.
Those who quality in the SLET are eligible to be appointed as assistant professor in state-run colleges.
Former member of the banned CPI (Maoist) Arnab Dam arrested in 2012 in connection with the Maoist attack in the Silda camp of the Eastern Frontier Rifles in 2010 appeared for the SET.
Arnab, 40, a retired judicial magistrate's son dropped out of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur and joined the Maoists in 1998.
He did his bachelor's and a master's degree in History while being in prison, a senior official of the Correctional Home told PTI.
"Arnab has secured first divisions in both the examinations. He has applied to various universities for PhD programme," the officer said.
Arnab was quite active in Purulia region as well as in areas adjoining the state's border with Jharkhand border.
"He had grown quite close to Koteshwar Rao, alias Kishenji in quick time. And after Kishan ji was killed in 2011 Arnab started reorganising Maoists in the border areas," a senior official at the state Home department said.
Out of the 31 cases against him, Arnab was either acquitted, or granted bail in most of the cases, his counsel Ajoy Ghosh said.
"He is yet to get bail in the Silda attack, for which he has been booked under the sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Ghosh said.
Arnab was linked to the Maoist attack in February 2010 on a camp of Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) in Silda in which over 20 ERF personnel were killed.
When contacted Arnab's mother, Kalyani Sarkar Dam said that she was quite hopeful that her son would have a positive result in the tests.
"I hope that he will do good in the tests. I pray to God. Arnab has always been a very good student," his mother told PTI.
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