RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Aug.20: Carrying a reward of Rs 25 lakh on his head police in Hazaribagh arrested a senior Maoist leader, Pradyumn Sharma (49), who joined left-wing extremism leaving his BSF sub-inspector’s training mid-way in 1996 and reached a senior level in the field of extremism.
The breakthrough came after police swung into action on the direction of the Superintendent of the Police of the district, Manoj Ratan Chothe, who got a tip-off regarding the movement of Sharma in Pathalgada area under Chouparan police station area of Hazaribagh district.
“As police reached at the directed spot yesterday morning, they spotted two near Kothodumar hills. Police caught one while another escaped. When the man in police interrogated him it became clear that the man in police custody was Sharma,” a police official said sharing the breakthrough.
SP Manoj Ratan confirmed the development saying Sharma had no left eye and right hand but despite that, he was able to influence youths and attract them towards left-wing extremism.
“Sharma had lost one eye and a hand in an IED blast. The organization had given two bodyguards equipped with AK-47 rifles. He used to recruit youths in extremist organizations. Records available to us suggest he is wanted in as many as 90 cases. The Bihar government had declared a reward of Rs 50,000 and recently decided to increase it to Rs 5 lakh,” the SP said.
The SP said that Sharma started his career as an extremist after killing one of the villagers following a land dispute and came in contact with several senior Maoist leaders including Ganapathy, Kishan Da, Arvind Ji and Sudhakaran. He was a special area committee member of the Bihar- Jharkhand Special Area Committee.
SP Manoj Ratan said Sharma was selected as Sub-inspector in BSF and got trained at BSF Training Camp, Meru, Hazaribagh in 1994. He left the training mid-way to join the Naxal movement in 1996.
