Two alleged members of the Uttarakhand zonal committee of Maoists were apprehended by the police from a mango grove in Kichha on the weekend. Maoist literature and publicity material was found on the two persons who are accused of being active in both the ideological and insurgent activities of the Maoists in Uttarakhand and elsewhere.
Udham Singh Nagar Senior Superintendent of police Sadanand Date informed that under the leadership of Sitarganj circle officer Himanshu Shah, a police team, acting on a tip off apprehended two men sitting in a grove in Kichha. One of the two identified himself as Ramesh Bhatt alias Manish Master, a native of Halduchaud area and the other identified himself as Manoj Kumar Singh alias Arvind, a native of Chandauli distrit in Uttar Pradesh. The police team recovered banned Maoist literature and publicity material from the duo. Bhatt is already wanted in Maoism related crimes dating back to more than a decade ago and had a cash reward of Rs 10,000 on his arrest. During police questioning, it was revealed that the two men have been active in Maoist activities for some time now and are also active members of the Uttarakhand zonal committee. They had also participated in the Maoist camp held at Chorgaliya in Nainital during 2003-04 and had managed to escape when the police combed the area at the time. In the camp, Bhatt used to motivate others to follow the Maoist ideology while Arvind was the coordinator of the camp. After this camp, they had also allegedly participated in the simultaneous attacks on nine locations by 300 Maoists at Madhubani in Bihar during 2005. According to the SSP, the duo used to recruit people to the Maoist ideology. Meanwhile, the inspector general of police and SSP have announced cash rewards of Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 respectively for the police team which apprehended the two.