Kolkata, June 17 -- A woman Maoist leader carrying a bounty of Rs.10 lakh surrendered before the Kolkata Police on Wednesday with a firearm and ammunition.

Police said Shakuntala, also known as Pushpa and Barsa, had been active for over two decades and worked under senior CPI (Maoist) leader Misir Besra in Jharkhand's Saranda forest before deciding to lay down arms.

"A resident of Belpahari in West Bengal, she joined the Maoist Communist Centre around 2001 as a cultural member when she was in the fifth standard. She was a zonal committee member of the Dalma squad of CPI (Maoist). She has surrendered before us," Kolkata police commissioner Ajay Nand said.

In September 2004, two major left-wing extremist rebel groups - the People's War G...