Dinesh Gope was arrested from Delhi on Sunday.
New Delhi/Ranchi:
The Nationwide Investigation Company (NIA) has arrested a self-styled chief of a proscribed Maoist outfit, who was concerned in over 100 felony instances throughout three states.
Dinesh Gope was arrested in Nepal on Sunday the place he ran a dhaba for the final 13 months, posing as a Sikh man, sources mentioned, including that he wore a turban to cover his id.
On February 3 final yr, an encounter had taken place between the Individuals’s Liberation Entrance of India (PLFI) member-led by Gope and the safety forces in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum, however he managed to flee.
Gope escaped to Nepal after the encounter and stared the dhaba in Biratnagar, close to the worldwide border with India in Bihar, it is learnt.
Sources mentioned Gope used to destroy his cell phones and sim playing cards after making calls to the “space commanders” of his outfit in Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand. Nevertheless, a name made by Gope from his private quantity earlier this yr helped safety forces hint his Nepal location.
“Gope had been on the run for nearly twenty years,” mentioned the NIA.
Gope was earlier chargesteeted by the anti-terror company in 2018 over restoration of demonetised foreign money value Rs 25 lakh from the operatives of Individuals’s Liberation Entrance of India (PLFI) – the Maoist outfit led by him.
Of the 102 instances registered in opposition to Gope in Jharkhand, Bihar and Odisha, most relate to murders, abductions, threats, extortion, and elevating funds for the PLFI.
The NIA had declared a reward of Rs 5 lakh for leads on Gope, along with Rs 25 lakh reward introduced by the Jharkhand authorities
Gope is accused of extorting cash from businessmen and contractors, which was utilized by the outfit to obtain refined weapons, together with AK 47s and foreign-made Rifles, akin to HK 33.
He reportedly informed officers throughout interrogation that his group extorted about Rs 120 crore yearly from them.
“Gope was concerned in investing these funds in doubtful shell firms, fashioned in partnership with different PLFI associates and his members of the family. The extorted cash was additionally being transferred from Jharkhand to different locations by means of a community of hawala operators,” the NIA mentioned.
PLFI, beforehand referred to as Jharkhand Liberation Tigers (JLT), is chargeable for a whole bunch of terror incidents in Jharkhand, together with a number of murders.
“The outfit used to lure unemployed youths by offering them motor bikes, cell phones and simple cash. After imparting coaching, the outfit used to equip them with deadly weapons to hold out terror incidents,” the company mentioned.
