Wanted Naxalite held in Chhattisgarh

Raipur, Jun 29: A 40-year-old Naxalite, allegedly involved in major Maoist-related incidents including the attack on former MLA's house in insurgency–hit Kanker district, was arrested from Chhattisgarh's Bhanupratappur region today.

Mura Usendi was apprehended by a joint team of the Border Security Force and district police during a routine patrol in the region, a senior police official told PTI.

Usendi was then handed over to Bande police station as several cases were registered against him, he said. Active as head of Janatana Sarakar group of the outlawed CPI (Maoist) at Chingpadar village under restive Bande region, Usendi was part of the guerrilla squad which had ambushed a police patrol team, killing a station house officer and an assistant constable in February this year, he said.

On February 2, Bande SHO Avinash Sharma and assistant constable Sonu Ram Gawde were killed and eight others, including six security personnel, were injured when ultras attacked a joint patrolling squad in the dense forest between Hawalbaras and Panawar villages.

Usendi was also among other Maoists who had stormed the house of former Congress MLA Manturam Pawar in Pakhanjore on January 5 and looted five sophisticated rifles and live cartridges from his security guards.

However, no casualty was reported in that incident. Besides, Usendi's interrogation has also established his involvement in the attack on BSF's patrolling party near their Chhote Baithiya camp on the night of April 12, in which a jawan was killed, the officer added.

PTI