Somen successor arrested in Nadia

KRISHNAGAR, May 2: A top Maoist leader and state committee member of CPI (Maoist) along with two of his colleagues were arrested yesterday from Hanskhali near Kotwali in Nadia. The arrested leader, Mr Ajit Chakraborty had replaced Himadri Sen Roy alias Somen after the latter's recent arrest.
Police said Mr Chakraborty escaped from Cooch Behar correctional home in 1986 and was wanted in connection with several cases since then.
“We have arrested Ajit Chakraborty in a raid in the Kotwali area in Nadia. After Somen's arrest he was working in his place and looking after the Bengal operations,” Mr Raj Kanojia, IG, law and order, said today.
Two other persons were arrested along with Mr Ajit Chakraborty during the raid, police said.
Mr Hari Kishore Kusumakar, SP, Nadia said, based on information obtained after interrogating Somen and Bapi Debnath who are in police custody in Nadia, police raided a house in the Hanskhali police station area in the wee hours on 1 May, and arrested the three Maoists, including a woman.
Ajit Chakraborty alias Tera Master was arrested for the first time during 1971 for Naxalite activities, but in 1975 he escaped from Presidency Jail.
He was re-arrested in 1983 near Jalpaiguri and sent to the Cooch Behar Jail from where he escaped in 1986.
According to police, of the two other persons arrested, Juthika alias Rina Sarkar alias Krishna was a squad member who had been involved in the rifle-snatching case of Bhutpara in Nadia.
Until recently, she was looking after the party’s women’s front in Galakata Bhatjangla near Kotwali. Police identified the third person arrested as Mongol Mondol alias Hatkata Chandi.
Mr Kusumakar said these activists had been working in Nadia for the last three years.
“Since 2005, we have arrested five squad members and about thirty Maoist activists in Nadia,” Mr Kusumakar added.