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NIA arrests banned Maoist group’s supremo Dinesh Gope from Delhi
NIA had also declared a reward of ₹5 lakh for leads on Dinesh Gope, in addition to the reward of Rs. 25 lakh announced by the Jharkhand government.
RANCHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday arrested the absconding supremo of the People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI), a splinter group of outlawed CPI (Maoists), from New Delhi, officials said.
Dinesh Gope alias Kuldeep Yadav alias Badku, a resident of Jharkhand’s Khunti district, carrying a cash reward of ₹30 lakh, was earlier charge-sheeted by the NIA in the case relating to the recovery of demonetized currency of Rs. 25.38 lakhs from the operatives of PLFI, officials said. He was absconding in the said case which is one of the two cases being investigated by the NIA Ranchi Branch against the PLFI.
“As per investigations, more than 102 criminal cases are registered against Gope in Jharkhand, Bihar, and Odisha. Most of these cases relate to murders, abductions, threats, extortion, and raising funds for the PLFI, a militant Maoist outfit formed in 2007,” an official said.
NIA had also declared a reward of ₹5 lakh for leads on Gope, in addition to the reward of Rs. 25 lakh announced by the Jharkhand government. He had been absconding for almost two decades.
On February 3, 2022, an encounter took place between a Gope-led PLFI squad and security personnel in the forest area under Gudri Police Station of West Singhbhum district. Several rounds were fired in the encounter before the rebels sneaked into the forest and Gope managed to escape. He had been absconding since then and had been taking shelter at different places while making all efforts to re-establish the PLFI’s stronghold in Jharkhand.
“Gope used to extort money and execute attacks through his PLFI team members to terrorize businessmen, contractors, and the public at large, NIA investigations have shown. The accused, along with his associates, was involved in depositing the demonetized currency in a bank account at a petrol pump, to be later collected through levy/extortion. The illegal money was then invested through banking channels and dubious shell companies in the name of close associates and family members of Gope,” an official said.
“Extortion is PLFI’s major source of income, and the outfit has been targeting coal traders, railway contractors, and various private entities involved in developmental projects in various districts of Jharkhand. The Maoist outfit had also formed alliances with different criminal gangs to spread their nefarious activities and executed several incidents of murders and arson in Jharkhand,” an official said.
According to officials, the NIA investigation has revealed that Gope was part of a criminal conspiracy to channelize the extorted funds collected from the contractors/businessmen engaged in the developmental projects in Jharkhand. He was involved in investing these funds in dubious shell companies like M/S Palak Enterprises, M/s Shiv Adi Shakti, M/s Shiv Shakti Samridhi Infra Pvt. Ltd., M/s Bhavya Engicon, formed in partnership with other PLFI associates and his family members. “The extorted money was also being transferred from Jharkhand to other places through a network of hawala operators,” an official said.
In July 2007, Masi Charan Purty, a renegade of the CPI-Maoist, along with several of his followers, had joined Gope to raise PLFI as a Maoist outfit. “Though Masi Charan Purty was subsequently arrested, the PLFI spread its activities under Gope’s command. He used to collect huge amounts of extortion money, which was further used to procure sophisticated weapons, including AK 47s and foreign-made rifles, such as HK 33,” an official said.
