Probe Into Naxal Boss By NIA Leads To Massive Seizure Of Arms and Ammunition

The arrest of Dinesh Gope, a naxal supremo was an important breakthrough for the National Investigation Agency.

Following the leads given by Gope, the NIA and Jharkhand police have managed to seize a large number of explosives, arms and ammunition from the state over the past two days. Gope was a top operative of the naxal front, People's Liberation Army.

The seizures were made from Khunti, Simdega and Gum districts based on the disclosures made by Gope, who is the self-styled chief of the PLFI. He was arrested by the NIA on May 21. Gope has been in NIA custody for the past day days and had earlier too led the agency to seize a huge cache of arms and ammunition in the forest area.

He has led the NIA to seize about 62 kilograms of gelatin and 732 rounds of 5.56 mm ammunition from the Garai area of Kunti.

On Tuesday the NIA said that two IEDs were also seized from the forest of Simdega. From Gumla, the agency seized one pisto, 11 rounds of ammunition and 30 rounds of .303 ammunition.

This was the third such surprise by the NIA in less than a week. On May 26 a huge cache of ammunition was seized as a result of the sustained investigations, the NIA said. All the seizures took place following the arrest and subsequent interrogation of Gope.

Gope has been a fugitive for 20 years and wanted in 102 cases.

"More than 102 criminal cases are registered against Gope in Jharkhand, Bihar and Odisha. Most of these cases relate to murder, abduction, threat, extortion, and raising funds for the PLFI, a militant Maoist outfit formed in 2007 in Jharkhand and also a splinter group of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist). The NIA had also declared a reward of Rs 5 lakhs for leads on Gope, in addition to the reward of Rs 25 lakh announced by the Jharkhand government. He had been absconding for almost two decades," an NIA statement by the NIA read.