M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Feb 1: CPI Maoists in Jharkhand continue to collect money as levy from builders, contractors, stone crushing plant owners and brick kiln owners.
They have their overground men who act as courier of the money for which they are paid also.
Jharkhand police have been asking donors to naxals to refrain from giving them money but it is being given to buy peace and security from the naxals.
A contractor Mumtaz Ahmad Khan told lagatar24.com that he had to suffer losses worth many crores when naxals set afire his road construction tools and machines in several districts like Palamu, Latehar, Chatra etc in sheer revenge of him not giving them money.
Khan said he and his partners have to bear huge losses on this account. “We resist the naxals and fail their demand for levy and in return the state police have withdrawn our security.”
In a recent catch, the Mahuadanr police in Latehar caught two couriers of the banned naxal outfit CPI Maoists on Sunday, January 30.
Confirming this, the officer in-charge of the Mahuadanr police station Ashutosh Yadav said that the police had received a tip-off about couriers supplying money. They have recovered Rs. 1,70,000 cash from the arrested couriers. The cash is levy money.
Police officer Yadav said: “We were carrying out road checking near India Reserve Battalion post on Sunday when we spotted two men on a bike who were looking suspicious and nervous. They were halted and frisked and then the cash tumbled down from a bag. The two could not defend this cash and confessed to be carrying it to Pundaag Chhattisgarh Maoists.”
They had collected this levy from a Gumla based contractor and were on their way to Pundaag, Chhattisgarh via Mahuadanr where they had to hand over the cash to ‘some Maoists’. Pundaag is a part of the interstate infamous Pahar called Burha Pahar, the rendezvous of the CPI Maoists.
The arrested couriers have been identified as Amanat Ansari and Ramuj Ansari and are relatives. Both hail from Pundaag in Chhattisgarh.
Both are in the age group of 20 to 25. They have supplied levy money to the Maoists in Chhattisgarh in the past as well.
Both have been remanded in judicial custody on Monday, January 31.
