Most-wanted naxal Dinesh Gope arrested after evading capture since 2016

Carrying a Rs 30 lakh bounty on his head, the leader of the PFLI, Dinesh Gope was found hiding in Nepal and is now being held in Delhi

Dinesh Gope, Jharkhand’s most wanted Naxalite, was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a joint operation with Jharkhand Police on Sunday.

Dinesh Gope, also known by his aliases Kuldeep Yadav and Badku, is a left-wing extremist outfit, People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI). A self-styled supremo of the Naxal outfit has been accused of being involved in over 100 criminal cases registered in Jharkhand, Bihar, and Odisha. Accusations range from murders, abductions, extortions, and raising money for the PLFI.

PLFI is a militant Maoist outfit formed in 2007, a splinter group of the Communist Party of India.

Dinesh Gope had evaded arrest for nearly two decades and allegedly worked to re-establish the dominance of PFLI in Jharkhand. A reward of Rs 30 lakh was offered for information that may aid in his capture. This bounty was set up by the Jharkhand Police and the NIA, with the former offering Rs 25 lakh and the latter, Rs 5 lakh.

 

The PFLI group under Gope was accused of terrorising businessmen, contractors, and the public. The group reportedly used petrol pumps to deposit demonetised notes and later collect valid currency through extortion. The money was then invested in banks and shell companies through the accounts of close friends and family members of PFLI members.

A case was registered against him in 2016 upon the seizure of Rs 25.38 lakh demonetised notes from the PLFI outfit.

In February 2022, an encounter between Gope’s group and security personnel took place at the Gudri police station of West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand, near the Khunti-Chaibasa border. According to a report by the Time of India, Gope was injured when many rounds of shots were fired before the group escaped into the forest. The same report indicates that Gope fled the state out of fear of being killed.

According to a report by the Hindu, the Naxal outfit also worked with many criminal gangs and used their funds to procure AK47s and other weapons to carry out their criminal activities. The same report names Palak Enterprises, Shiv Adi Shakti, Shiv Shakti Samridhi Infra Pvt. Ltd., and Bhavya Engicon as the shell companies that partnered with PFLI to transfer the funds secured by the group, primarily through extortion.

India Today reported that Dinesh Gope was hiding out in Nepal under one of his aliases and wearing a turban in an attempt to disguise himself as a Sikh.