In a major boost for the security establishment in the ongoing anti-Naxal operations, Misir Besra, a politburo member of the outlawed CPI (Maoist), carrying a bounty of over ₹2.2 crore and wanted in 175 cases, was arrested in Dhanbad district on Tuesday, officials said on Wednesday.
Besra, 65, known by several aliases, including Bhaskar and Sagar, was arrested along with his two close associates in the Maniadih area under the Barwadda Police Station limits at around 9.30 pm on Tuesday. The arrest occurred during ‘Operation Daura Pahad,’ a joint operation of Cobra-9, the Intelligence Bureau, and the Jharkhand police, while Besra and his associates were traveling in a small transport vehicle, officials said.
Hailing the arrest as a major achievement and a ‘historic’ moment for the state police, DGP Tadasha Mishra said that with Besra’s arrest, the Maoist menace has been ‘almost wiped out’ from the state. Besra, a resident of Madnadih village in Giridih district, was the only active top-ranking CPI (Maoist) politburo member who was still functional, the DGP said.
“The top Maoist carried a combined bounty of ₹2.20 crore, announced by the Jharkhand and Odisha governments. He was wanted in 175 cases across Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal. This is a historic moment. Many Maoists have either been neutralised, surrendered or have been arrested. The menace has almost reached its end,” Mishra said.
{{/usCountry}}“The top Maoist carried a combined bounty of ₹2.20 crore, announced by the Jharkhand and Odisha governments. He was wanted in 175 cases across Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal. This is a historic moment. Many Maoists have either been neutralised, surrendered or have been arrested. The menace has almost reached its end,” Mishra said.
{{/usCountry}}According to the security establishment, CPI (Maoist) central committee member Asim Mandal is the only functionary of the naxal group still at large. “We have specific information about his whereabouts. He will also be in the net soon,” the DGP said.
Besides Two other Maoists - Mehnat alias Mochu, who was carrying a reward of ₹15 lakh, and Gaurav - were also arrested along with Besra. Two other accomplices were also arrested soon after. Officials said Besra, also known as Sagar Da and Bhaskar Da, joined the banned outfit in 1980 and rose through its ranks to become a central committee member in 2003. He played a key role in expanding the Maoist network in Jharkhand and neighbouring states.
“The three arrested Maoists were involved in several major attacks over the years, including the 2005 Jehanabad jailbreak in Bihar, multiple bank robberies, large-scale looting of arms and ammunition, and several IED blasts. They were responsible for the deaths of more than 100 security personnel,” Jharkhand Police Inspector General (Operations) Narendra Singh said.
Officials said the three red rebels had been attempting to revive Maoist activities in the Parasnath region. “This group had left the Saranda area and shifted to the Parasnath region in the past few weeks, which is home to Besra. He had been contacting some of his previous contacts and shifting his locations. We had specific intelligence about their location, and we struck at the right moment. It is a big achievement for us that we got hold of such a dreaded Maoist without a shot being fired from either side,” an official who was part of the operation said.
Reacting to Misir Besra’s arrest, his brother Devlal Besra said the family came to know that he had been apprehended between 10 pm and 11 pm on Tuesday in the border area between Dhanbad and Giridih.
“He has not come home since 1986-87. We have a nephew. We also had a niece, but she passed away. We had repeatedly appealed to him to return to the mainstream,” Devlal Besra told the media.
The arrests came hours after 16 Maoists, including six carrying a combined bounty of ₹39 lakh, surrendered before the Jharkhand Police. Earlier this year, sixteen Maoists, including top leader and central committee member Patiram Manjo Anal, were killed in a gunfight with security forces in West Singhbhum district.