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National

Top Maoist leader remanded to police custody

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: The secretary of West Bengal State committee of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), Somen, was remanded to police custody till March 7 after being produced in a court in Barasat in North 24 Parganas district on Sunday.

Somen is suspected to have masterminded Maoist operations in the State and also involved in subversive activities in Jharkhand, Orissa and Chaattisgarh.

Known as Somen in Maoist circles (original name: Himadri Sen Roy), he was arrested along with a party colleague from Hridaypur railway station in the district on Saturday. “His arrest is a major breakthrough in our fight against the Maoists,” said Bhupinder Singh, Additional Director-General of Police, Criminal Investigation Department.

The police, in the course of over-night investigations, found that Somen was involved in several cases of subversion and killings. One of the charges levelled against him is “waging war against the State.”

The police is also investigating whether or not he was in any way linked to the February 15 killings by Maoists in Orissa’s Nayagarh district. Somen’s arrest came a day after suspected Maoists entered a classroom of a primary school in the Belpahari area of Paschim Medinipur district and shot dead a teacher in front of his stunned pupils.

The victim, Karamchand Singh, was a member of the local committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

The Maoists are active in certain pockets of Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and Purulia districts, though they are known to have set up bases in other parts of south Bengal too. The police have claimed that many of the militants sneak into the State from their hide-outs in neighbouring districts – particularly Jharkhand – and return there after carrying out their operations in West Bengal.

They have been targeting local CPI (M) leaders. Maoists were also suspected to have been involved in the intermittent violence during 2007 in the Nandigram area of Purbo Medinipur.

The State leadership of the CPI (M) has said that the murder in Belpahari is evidence of attempts of the Maoists to foment unrest and undermine democracy in the State. It has called for “condemnation day” to be observed across the State on Monday protesting against the murder and the politics of violence of the Maoists.

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