India

Three Maoists arrested from Aranapur of Dantewada District of Chattisgarh

The operation took place on late night February 8

Credit : Shubham Patil

In continuation of the operations under the Naxal Extinction Mission, Chattisgarh police forces in Dantewada arrested three Maoists from Aranapur region of Dantewada District on Monday. The operation took place on late night February 8, with District Police force Aranpur, District Reserve Guards (DRG) and Chattisgarh Armed Forces (CAF) of Potali camp in their joint unit. The joint unit of three police forces did the operation in the forest area of village Madenda and Nelawaya. Two of the Maoists are from Madia tribe while the youngest of them belongs to the Muria tribe of Chattisgarh.

Police had found traces of three Maoists travelling from the Telangana state towards Chattisgarh according to the information provided by the informers. Bheema Madavi aka Mutte Bheema, 35, from Missipaara, Potali has been arrested in the operation. He was assigned with the duty to handover explosives to another banned Maoists organisation Malanger Area Committee member ACM Denga Deva. Bheema belongs to the banned Communist organisation Dandakaranya Adivasi-Kisan Majdoor Sangh (DAKMS) and had rose ranks from Cadre since 2009. He was one among the list of the 405 Naxalites of Darbha Division, Malanger Area Committee, Katekalyan Area Committee previously shared by security forces. 

Bheema Madavi was enlisted in many Naxal activities in recent years in Aranpur area, charged with Act 147, 148, 149, 307 and 120 B of IPC and arms act. Accused of offences like pasting Maoist party posters and banners in villages, barricading roads of police forces and torching a police pick-up vehicle in 2010, his most recent recorded activity in 2016 where he was accused of using an improvised explosive device (IED) blast against Aranpur police to snatch the armoury and firing at police officials. He has been one of the active members of  Dandakaranya Adivasi-Kisan Majdoor Sangh (DAKMS) since joining in 2009. 

An active member of Gram Raksha Dal (GRD) Force of  Missipara Potali village, Joga Madavi has also been arrested in the operation. Banned by multiple state governments as an extremist organisation, GRD force was established by CPI(Maoist) alongside the Krantikari Balak Sangh (KBS) and the Gram Rajya Samiti (GRS) for patrolling villages in the CPI(Maoist) administrated region of Dandakaranya. A Muria tribal youth from Potali-Kakadi region, Joga Madavi had led a group of 100 to 150 tribal to dig the roads and barricading police vehicles from the region for 8 days.

The other arrested Maoist Gajroo Barse, 25, is from Schoolpara Barrem of Aranpur who has the same charges against him. An active member and Militia Deputy Commander of Communist Party of India (Maoist), Gajroo had started operations in 2014. He is also accused of being part of Jan Adalat, the public courts run by CPI(Maoist) in Adivasi areas and executing two alleged police informers in June 2020.