Bengal Maoist leader in police custody till March 7

A large number of banned documents, leaflets, threat letters, a flash gun, an ordinary gun and gelatin sticks were recovered from the possession of state general secretary of CPI(Maoist) Himadri Sen Roy alias Somen aka Bidhan, CID ADG Bhupinder Singh said on Sunday. Somen was produced in Barasat court and remanded in police custody till March 7. Dilip Mandi alias Deba (42), his associate, was also produced in Srirampur court in Hooghly on Sunday and remanded in police custody for four days.

On Saturday, 55-year-old Somen, who later admitted his involvement in several militant activities in West Bengal, Orissa and Jharkhand, was caught along with Deba from Hridaypur railway station, North 24-Parganas district. Acting on a tip-off, CID sleuths had conducted a raid to arrest Somen on Saturday. But initially they failed to identify him. Later with the help of local residents the sleuths arrested him from a tea stall. The sleuths claimed Somen was not involved in the movement of arms, but was an expert in triggering mine blasts.

He was allegedly involved in a number of mine blasts in West Bengal, Orissa and Jharkhand.

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A Maoist activist since the 1970s, he had been on the run for years but had never been arrested before, the police said.

Somen, who is from Suryanagar in Khardah, North 24-Parganas, joined the Maoist Communist Centre in 1968 and later the People’s War. Since the CPI-Maoist was formed a few years ago, Somen has been overseeing its West Bengal operations.