An analogy of complete rout of Maoists’ zonal commander Rakesh Bhuiyan’s gang will not be anymore irrelevant. Out of 15 active members, as many as six met encounters, eight caught and the last one surrendered.
The last man of the group Vimal Yadav landed in central jail Daltonganj which left not even a remote chance of any group of Maoists retaliating for this total annihilation of this squad but challenges are not over, said Palamu SP Indrajeet Mahatha said on Sunday.
“The dasta is finished. The Maoists have left a vacuum which will be filled in by flurry of developmental activities. We have approached our police headquarter in Ranchi for setting up a police picket at Chetma and once it comes up, there will be civic amenities here in this area and the Maoists will not be able to step in again. The space that we captured here after this elimination of Maoist squad here will be abuzz with social and economic activities.”
Substantiating the claims further, Deputy SP Shambhu K Singh said luck also smiled on the forces. “At times we had zero input but we worked hard with our SP and ASP Ops Arun K Singh and others and got this squad uprooted. Our SP had given us just 30 days time to eliminate this squad but we did it in 45 days to which SP Mahatha looked liberal that his boys took 15 days more. One squad gone and also police left without injury which is a rare feat by all standards in anti naxal operations in the last one year or so.”
Giving credit of the arrest, the SP said Bihar IG Ops Kundan Krishnan and his team did a wonderful job as it was Bihar police that had caught Yadav in Jharkhand’s Dhanbad. “Our police just brought him down here where on Sunday he was taken on judicial remand.”
Police have recovered one rifle and 39 cartridges.
Vimal Yadav has 39 cases against him in Jharkhand and more than three dozen in Bihar. Shambhu K Singh said the team had met Yadav’s wife Gita Devi in Bihar for convincing him for surrender but she took time and Yadav landed in the police net.