Top Maoist, Misir Besra arrested in Jharkhand
Jharkhand Police, along with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and its CoBRA unit, arrested CPI (Maoist) politburo member Misir Besra on Tuesday evening in Dhanbad district. Besra, 65, carried Rs 1 crore bounty from the Jharkhand Government, with more rewards from other States and the NIA. He was one of the last senior leaders still active in the banned group.
Besra, who is also known as Sagar Da, Bhaskar Da, Sunirma, and Pradhan, was arrested with two other senior members of the outfit in the Maniadih area under Barwadda police station, near the Dhanbad-Giridih border and forests close to the Parasnath foothills. The other Maoists arrested included a regional committee member identified as Tumba Manjh or Mehnat alias Mochh, and another area or regional committee member. Two villagers were also detained. The operation was based on specific intelligence that placed Besra in the area after he had left his usual strongholds.
Security agencies described the arrest as a major setback to the Maoist network in the Saranda and Kolhan forests, where Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal meet. Investigators are now questioning those arrested about weapons caches, IEDs, logistics and supporters who have helped the insurgency. Besra, who comes from Madnadih village in Giridih’s Pirtand area, joined the Maoist movement in the early to mid-1980s and rose through the ranks over almost forty years. He became a Central Committee member and served on the Central Military Commission and the Eastern Regional Bureau.
Police records connect him to more than 140 cases in Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal, including attacks on security forces, extortion, arms trafficking and other violence. He was arrested in 2007 but escaped in a dramatic incident in Bihar in 2009.
With Besra now in custody, security officials say the CPI (Maoist)’s central committee and politburo are now largely non-functional, showing a major loss of top leadership after years of arrests, killings, and surrenders. This arrest is expected to disrupt the remaining Maoist networks in eastern India’s Red Corridor and speed up efforts to make the area free of Naxal activity. As interrogation continues, officials are focused on getting actionable information to stop any remaining threats and encourage more surrenders. For communities in Jharkhand’s forested districts, which have faced Maoist violence for years, this is seen as a real step toward lasting safety and development.
