RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, May 22: Notorious PLFI (People’s Liberation Front of India) chief Dinesh Gope, whom the NIA (National Investigation Agency) had arrested from Bhutan on Sunday, was produced before the court, which handed him over to the central probe agency for seven-day interrogation.
The probe agency had sought 15-day remand saying the time was required to interrogate the extremist wanted in more than 100 criminal cases. The probe agency let the court know about the ferocity of the extremist saying that Jharkhand Police had announced a reward of Rs 25 lakhs on him and the NIA had declared a reward of five lakhs on him.
With this development path was paved for the criminal proceedings against Gope whose arrest was a challenge for the police. Despite half a dozen encounters with him, it could not be possible for the security personnel to arrest him.
Gope, a native of Lappa Mohratoli village, about 35km from Jharkhand capital in the Jariyagarh police station area of Khunti district, never allowed police to touch him though his name surfaced in dozens of murder cases.
The NIA started looking for him after it registered a case RC 02/2018 against him. The case was registered after the Ranchi police arrested four people including the petrol pump operator on 10 November 2016 when after demonetization Gope tried to deposit Rs 25.38 lakh of levy in the Bedo branch of SBI Ranchi through a petrol pump operator and the NIA took over the case on January 19, 2018.
The NIA had initially raided the premises of Dinesh Gope’s associate Sumant Kumar and others and recovered 90 lakh cash and investment documents. The NIA had also arrested Dinesh Gope’s two wives- Heera Devi and Shakuntala Kumari in the course of the investigation.
On 2 March 2020, the NIA arrested Dinesh Gope’s special associates Jayprakash Singh Bhuiyan and Amit Deshwal. A businessman from Gujarat was also arrested by the NIA in connection with the investment of PLFI money in companies.
