Midnapore, Sept. 17 -- Four decades of hiding in forests and moving under multiple aliases ended in a Bengal village today when CPI (Maoist) Central Committee member Asim Mandal alias Akash was 'detained' from Patashpur in East Midnapore by the Special Task Force (STF) of Kolkata Police, closing in on one of the last surviving senior Maoist commanders operating across the Bengal-Jharkhand-Odisha belt.
The 64-year-old Maoist leader, carrying a combined reward of Rs 2.20 crore from Jharkhand and Odisha, was picked up in the early hours from his in-laws' house at Patashpur, according to police sources. Jharkhand Police Headquarters, however, described the development as Mandal's surrender before the police.
The development came days after it...