Maoist mastermind of Bengal EFR camp attack held

In a prize catch, the West Bengal police on Tuesday night arrested top Maoist leader Venkateswar Reddy, the suspected mastermind of the attack that killed 24 Eastern Frontier Rifles personnel in Silda in West Midnapore district.

Additional Director General of Police of the Criminal Investigation Department Raj Kanojia said Reddy, alias Telugu Dipak, was arrested from Sarshuna on the southern fringes of the city.

Dipak, a close aide of Maoist Politburo member Kishanji alias Koteswar Rao, is a member of the State Military Commission, West Bengal chapter, and is in charge of armed operations in Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand, CID sources said.

The State Military Commission of the Maoists is responsible for detailed planning, operational method and process of execution of an armed operation, the sources said.

An expert in explosives, Dipak was allegedly behind all major strikes in West Bengal in recent times, as also the attack on Andhra Pradesh police's elite anti-Naxal force Greyhound in Balimela reservoir in Orissa's Malkangiri district, which killed 38 policemen.

Dipak's arrest is the biggest catch after the arrest of Maoist ideologue Kobad Ghandy, the sources said.

Dipak, who holds a mechanical engineering degree, was also the mastermind in the Maoist strikes in Silda, Sankrail, Gidhni and the Rajdhani siege incident in West Midnapore district, the sources said. As many as 24 EFR personnel were killed in the biggest Maoist strike in West Bengal on February 15 at the force's Silda camp.

Four EFR men were killed at Gidhni camp on November 8, 2009, and an officer-in-charge of Sankrail police station was kidnapped by the ultras on October 22 last year.

The Maoist-backed People's Committee against Police Atrocities activists had detained the Delhi-bound Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express for nearly seven hours at Banstala station on October 27, 2009, demanding the release of arrested PCPA leader Chhatradhar Mahto.

Hailing from Prakasham district of Andhra Pradesh, Dipak, who came to West Bengal in 1995, had been an active member of the Peoples War Group in Guntur district.

Later, when the PWG and Maoist Communist Centre merged to form the CPI-Maoist in 2000, he became a state committee member, the sources said. He became a member of the State Military Commission two years later.

Dipak, who had been underground for the last 20 years, face over 50 criminal cases, most of which are in Andhra Pradesh.