Major Naxal plot to disrupt UP polls busted, one held

Varanasi, Mar 13 (UNI) With the arrest of a Naxalite and recovery of a large cache of explosives, the police in the neighbouring Chandauli district today claimed to have busted a major Naxal plot to disrupt coming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

Superintendent of police (Chandauli) Pravin Kumar told UNI that acting on inputs from electronic surveillance, a special team of police raided a house in the Murarpur Tiraha area under Chakia police station late last night and arrested are Ghanshyam Verma along with a large cache of explosives.

The recovery included five detonators with fuse wires, five packets of gelatin-based ready-to-make explosives, a pressure cooker, aluminium wires and electric cable, Mr Kumar added.

The seized packets of ready-to-make explosives made in Nagpur will be sent for examination at government labs. But initial interrogation of Ghanshyam has revealed that the seized explosivces were to be supplied to Maoist extremists in Naxal- infested Sonebhadra, Chandauli and Mirzapur to carry out IED blasts, especially to disrupt assembly polls.

The recovery of a brand new cooker suggested that blasts like last year's twin blasts in Varanasi could well be on the mind of Naxal extremists operating in the region, Mr Kumar said.

Police sources said Ghanshyam was originally a carpenter and hailed from Hetimpur village under Chakia police station. He trained as an electrician by Naxal groups in Chhattisgarh and operated in the forests of Dhantebada in that state.

But after working there for sometime, he escaped with an AK-47 assault rifle, a single-barrel gun and other weapons.

The Chakia area, besides itself being Naxal-affected region is edged by the Naugarh police station area which has been the hotbed of naxalite extremism in recent years, including the 2004 landmine blast in Hinauta which killed over 14 UP police and PAC personnel.

UNI