Top Maoist leader nabbed by STF

Patna, May 9 (UNI) The sleuths of Special Task Force (STF) arrested top leader of proscribed CPI(Maoist), Ram Pravesh Baitha, here today.

Senior Police Superintendent Amit Kumar said acting on a tip-off, the STF laid a trap near Golghar and nabbed Ram from the area under Gandhi Maidan police station.

Mr Kumar said the Maoist leader, wanted in connection with several cases for the past few years, was living in a hide-out near Golghar for the last few days.

He said Ram was the ''think tank'' of the banned outfit and also incharge of the military commission of the Special Area Committee of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and monitored the operations of his organisation in all these states.

Mr Kumar said Ram had led almost all major operations of the outfit during the past four years in North Bihar.

The STF was interrogating him.

Incidentally, several top Maoist leaders have been arrested from the state capital in the recent past. The arrests indicated that Naxalites were expanding their base in the state capital as well.

Last year, a top leader of the Maoists and a think tank of the outfit- S Bhattacharya -- was arrested from a house under Buddha colony police station.

Bhattacharya, who was incharge of the Maoist activities in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, was living at a rented house. Firearms and naxalism-related documents, pamphlets were recovered in huge quantity from the house where the outlawed took shelter.

Last year during October-November, the STF got a major ''breakthrough'' by arresting two hardcore commanders of the maoists from a house in Agamkuan police station area. A truck loaded with firearms and some documents revealing secret plans were also seized during the operation.

The Maoists, at that time, planned to target the vital installations of the state capital, including the Secretariat and some public places.

Two years back, the STF swooped down on a house near Bansghat area in Patna and caught seven Nepali Maoists holding secert meetings with their Bihari counterparts to engineer major attack in the state.

Apart from this, several Maoists were arrested during the past few years from a cyber cafe in Kankarbagh from where they were getting messages from their top brass to execute their plans.

UNI RS-KKS KK SKB KN1947