Top Maoist leader arrested in Palamau

Para-military forces today apprehended a 23-year-old "sub-zonal commander" of CPI (Maoist) when he came to meet his family at Madhya village of Palamau district, police said.

"The security forces surrounded his house at 2am and arrested him after getting information that Maoist Prabhu Yadav has taken leave from the Maoist's firing squad to meet his wife and two children," CRPF Commandant Anil Minz and SP Palamau Anup T Mathew told reporters here.

Yadav guided the police to two places under Manatu police station where the security forces found a 5kg IED, seven gelatin sticks, 25 detonators and a 100-mt wire, they said.

A country-made pistol and Maoist literature was seized from the rebel, they said and added the rebel was allegedly involved in murder, kidnapping and encounters with the police.

"Yadav had killed three persons of rival extremist factions this year - two members of the Jharkhand Liberation Tigers on April 16 and one Jharkhand Prastuti Committee member on May 22," they said.