The most significant arrest was that of Sudip Chongdar alias Kanchan, a key leader in West Bengal and a close aide of Kishenji.
The West Bengal police’s Special Task Force has virtually broken the backbone of the Maoist network in West Bengal by arresting five top extremist leaders of the region on Friday and Saturday.
The most significant arrest was that of the CPI (Maoist) state secretary in West Bengal, Sudip Chongdar alias Kanchan, who was nabbed by the Special Task Force (STF) sleuths from a busy locality in central Kolkata on late Friday night.
Incidentally, Kanchan, as the official spokesperson of the state and the central committee, was responsible for interacting with the media.
Additional police commissioner (STF), Rajive Kumar said that besides Kanchan, the other major arrests were Anil Gosh alias Ajay, Barun Sur alias Bidyut, and Kalpana Maiti alias Annu, all of whom were senior state committee leaders of the CPI (Maoist). The fifth person arrested is a a colose associate of Kanchanm Bimal Mallick alias Shankar.
Rajive Kumar also said STF sleuths are conducting more such raids in and around Kolkata which might lead to further arrests. The STF has also recovered huge consignments of detonators, landmines, explosives, wireless sets and laptops, among others.
The arrest of Kanchan and the others is being viewed as a major setback for the CPI (Maoist) in West Bengal and which is likely to affect their operations. Kanchan took over as state secretary in February 2008 after his predecessor, Himadri Sen Roy alias Shomen, was arrested at a railway station in Hooghly district.
As a close associate of Maoist politburo member Koteshwar Rao alias Kishenji, Kanchan was the principal coordinator of the Lalgarh movement in West Bengal. He also masterminded the landmine blast at Salboni in West Midnapore district on November 2, 2008, targeting the state chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, and the then Union minister of steel, Ram Vilas Paswan.
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