Two Maoist leaders nabbed in Kolkata

Kolkata: Two top Maoist leaders were arrested from the city on Saturday by the Special Task Force (STF) of the Kolkata police.

Acting on a specific intelligence input, the STF nabbed Bikas alias Manasharam Hembram and his wife Tara alias Thakurmani Hembram from near the Brigade Parade Ground here.

A state committee member of the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist, Hembram, along with his wife, were involved several acts of violence including the 2010 attack in a Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) camp in Silda in West Midnapore district in which 24 paramilitary personnel were killed.

"Bikas Aand his wife Tara, who is the leader of Maoist's Salboni squad, were involved in several incidents of violence including those in Silda," said Joint Commissioner of Police (STF) Vishal Garg.

"Following their interrogation, we raided a house in Mogra area in Hooghly district and seized an AK 47 rifle along with several rounds of live ammunition, Maoist literature and some letters in tribal language," he added.

The duo will be presented before a court on Sunday.

The arrests come two days ahead of the first phase of the West Bengal assembly polls in which 18 assembly constituencies spread across the three Maoist-affected districts of Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore go to the hustings on Monday.

Of the 18 constituencies, 13 were not long ago the hub of red ultra activities, that peaked between 2006 and 2009.