Kolkata, Sept. 17 -- The Kolkata Police STF on Thursday arrested suspected Maoist leader Asim Mondal alias Akash from Polerhat, in a major breakthrough in the state's counter-insurgency efforts.
Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, in a post on X, said Mondal had been apprehended from Pataspur in East Midnapore, but Kolkata Police commissioner Ajay Nand clarified that although Mondal may have been hiding there, the arrest was made in Polerhat.
Nand said Mondal was a close associate of Maoist leader Kisenji and had risen to become secretary of the Maoist state committee. His identity and whereabouts were traced during the interrogation of Maoist leader Shraddha Biswas alias Bela, arrested by Kolkata Police in May. Police said Mondal is wanted in at least 17 cases in Jharkhand and around 13 cases in Bengal. Information about his arrest has been shared with Jharkhand Police.
Originally from Chandrakona, West Midnapore, Mondal became involved in left-wing extremism during his student years in the 1980s and later joined the People's War Group. He played a key role during the Lalgarh movement and became Maoist state secretary in 2010.
After the deaths of senior Maoist leaders, he reportedly fled to Jharkhand and later took charge of East Singhbhum district. Police said they had been tracking Mondal based on intelligence inputs and seized pen drives and memory cards from him.
The CM praised the STF operation and reiterated the government's zero-tolerance stance towards attempts to revive Maoist networks in Bengal.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.