Andhra Pradesh extremist arrested in Bihar

Patna, Sep 19 (UNI) A Maoist, Tushar Kant Bhattacharya, considered to be a thinktank of the banned Maoist outfit and active in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra for the past 30 years, was arrested from Dujra Locality under Buddha colony police station here today.

Inspector General (Operations) S K Bharadwaj said here that the arrested had joined the banned outfit in 1974 and been operating all over the country using different names.

He said following a tip-off, the STF raided a house in Dujra locality and arrested Bhattacharya, who was living there in a rented house.

He said incriminating documents and literature of Naxalites, pentimer and explosives in huge quantity were recovered from the house during the raid.

Police were searching the laptop of Tushar, missing since the raid, he added.

He said Bhattacharya had been entrusted with the responsibility of the activities of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Uttar Bihar (UUU) committee of the outfit and was running the committee's mission from the rented house in Patna for the past several months.

Another extremist Brajmohan Ram of Piro in Bhojpur district was also arrested along with Tushar.

Mr Bhardwaj said 52-year-old Tushar was well versed in six languages - Telegu, Kannada, Bangla, Marathi, Hindi and English, and used to translate the Naxalite-related literature in these languages to impart training to the extremists.

He said police teams from Delhi, Maharahstra and Andhra Pradesh had arrived here to interrogate Tushar, who carried cash prize on his head and was wanted by police in connection with several activities.

Police later produced Tushar along with Brajmohan Ram in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, who remanded them in judicial custody till October 3.

On the prayer of police, the court allowed ten days police remand for custodial interrogation of Bhattacharya.

Soma Sen, wife of Bhattacharya, was also made named accused in the case for actively assisting her husband in his activities.

Police also recovered of her some letters from the possession of Bhattacharya.

UNI