An Intelligence Bureau (IB) team arrived from New Delhi on Saturday to interrogate Ajay Kanu alias Ravi, the alleged mastermind behind Jehanabad jailbreak incident. Kanu was arrested on Friday. The team headed by an SP-rank officer visited the Bureau's office in Danapur area and quizzed Kanu for several hours.
The Bihar police officials have not yet been informed about Kanu's arrest. "Since he is wanted by the police of five states, including Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa, we are trying to elicit information about extremist operation from him," said a senior IB official on condition of anonymity.
The official said Kanu is a hard nut to crack. "Most of the time, he tried to divert the attention of the interrogators by disclosing irrelevant things about the organisational set up of the outfit," he said. The arrested CPI (Maoist) leader revealed to the IB officials how the Jehanabad operation was planned from inside the prison and carried out successfully on November 13, 2005.
Kanu, who is carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his head, fell into police net when he along with two women activists was on way to Kolkata from Dhanbad in Jharkhand. Sources said that he boarded the train at Gomo railway station under Dhanbad railway division and was taken into custody midway.
The arrest of Kanu is being viewed as a major setback to the outfit. "He is a prize catch for the police," the IB official said, adding that the Bureau was keeping a close tab on his activities for the past three days.
{{/usCountry}}The arrest of Kanu is being viewed as a major setback to the outfit. "He is a prize catch for the police," the IB official said, adding that the Bureau was keeping a close tab on his activities for the past three days.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier, the Bureau had picked up another person in mistaken identity but he was released. He, however, refused to disclose the name of the two women, who were accompanying Ajay at the time of his arrest.
Meanwhile, an alert has been sounded in extremist-affected districts in the wake of apprehended attack by ultras following Kanu's arrest in the state capital.
Email Ramashankar: ramaashankaar@hindustantimes.com