Kolkata-based engineer held for supplying arms to Maoists

KOLKATA: A 50-year-old engineer from Kolkata has been arrested for allegedly providing arms and communication equipment to Maoists at Saranda forest in Jharkhand.
The suspect, Bhaskar Chakraborty, was a favourite of former Maoist military chief Kishanji, who was killed in West Midnapore in November 2011.ADG (operations) S N Pradhan said Bhaskar was nabbed by Jharkhand police at Badajamda station as soon as he got off a Janshatabdi Express from Kolkata.Initial investigations reveal he was working for the Maoists in Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand, say police. Bhaskar's wife works as a nurse in South 24-Parganas, which is his native place.
SP Michael Raj S said Bhas kar was arrested based on information from a source. Badajamda station is in the Maoist hit West Singhbhum-Chaibasa belt Ten wireless sets and banned Maoist literature were found on him, say police.
Jharkhand police say Bhaskar used to supply wireless sets, Naxalite literature and weapons to Maoists in Saranda and has made at least three trips to the jungles in the past two months. He has been charged under the stringent UAPA ADG Pradhan said Bhaskar supplied arms and equipment directly to the Maoist central technical committee. "He would source the items from Kolkata and North 24-Parganas," he said. A Jharkhand police team is likely to arrive in Kolkata and talk to STF about Bhaskar's other possible links.
"There are writings from the 1970s-1980s Naxalite period in the literature seized form him. These are in English, Bengali and Hin di. He has told us that he was influenced by Maoism from the time he was a student at an ITI in Bengal. After completing a course in AC and refrigerator repairing, he went on to complete a diploma in engineering. He has been developing his contacts since the early '80s," said SP Raj.
Sources say Bhaskar was also a close associate of CPI (Maoist) politburo member Amitabh Bagchi and secretary of the central military commission Tauhid Mulla who are from Shyampukur in north Kolkata and Murshidabad. The duo was arrested more than once in the vicinity of Ranchi.
Police are investigating if Bhaskar was helping the Maoists rebuild their organization in Bengal with help from Bihar and Jharkhand cadres. "During questioning the accused has told us that they had devised some immediate and short-term objectives to gain control over key (strategic) industries with a view to inflicting damage on the state's capacity to fight Maoists," said SP Raj. The gunning down of Kishanji was a crippling blow to the Maoist network in Bengal but there are recent intelligence reports of the rebels regrouping and rearming in Jangalmahal.