Putting cold water on the plans of the CPI (Maoists) to influence the voting process during the forthcoming Assembly elections in the State, Ranchi police on Sunday arrested Zonal Commander Mukhlal Mahto alias Mochu Bhagat from Jumla area of Silli near Ranchi. Bhagat is also an active member of North Chotanagpur Committee of the CPI (Maoist) in the State. DGP Rajiv Kumar talking to the media persons on Monday assured that the State police are all prepared to conduct free and fair elections in the State.
A police team under the leadership of SP (Rural) SK Jha was formed after a tip-off and ‘Operation Swarnarekha’ was launched on Friday to nab hardcore Naxals Rammohan and Mukhlal Mahto.
“We have arrested Mochu Bhagat on Sunday who was apparently making preparations to influence voting process during the forthcoming Assembly elections in the state,” said DGP Rajiv Kumar. Calling it a great achievement by the state police, the DGP announced reward money of Rs two lakh for the team involved in the operations and Rs fifty thousand for the informer.
The reward money was distributed among the police team by the Chief Secretary Sajal Chakraverty. The current police team of SP (Rural) and Additional SP (Operations) is the most successful one which has regularly been doing good job must be appreciated,” said Chakraverty.
According to the Rural SP, Bhagat has been involved in more than 60 naxal related incidents in the state across the state and was quite active in Ranchi, Bokaro, Dhabad and Giridih for the last few years.
“We had information that Mukhlal and Rammohan were to hold a meet in the hillocks of Jumla of Silli followed by which ‘Operation Swarnrekha’ was launched forming strike parties – Cordon 1 and 2,” said SP Rural SK Jha. Rammohan however, succeeded in escaping from the spot, while Mukhlal was caught by the police while he was trying to run away, added Jha.
Naxal related cases declined in Jharkhand this year: DGP
Ranchi: DGP Rajiv Kumar has said that there has been remarkable decrease in the Naxal related incidents in the state this year as compared to the number of incidents which took place in the previous two years. According to the data available, only 178 incidents took place till September, 2014 against 287 and 300 incidents in 2013 and 2014 respectively. “Similarly, only 07 casualty of policemen took place in 2014 as compared to 25 in 2013 and 23 in 2014,” said Kumar. There has also been fewer casualties of civilians during this year counting to only 69, while 91 civilians got killed in 2013 and 87 were killed in 2012, added the DGP.
According to the DGP police has succeeded in recovering more weapons this year.
“In case of recovering the ammunitions also, we have recovered 5767 ammunitions this year, while only 2023 ammunitions were recovered in 2013 and 2690 were recovered in 2012.