Bihar police rounded up around 100 members of the CPI (Maoist) last night, hours before the outfit was to hold a rally here, sanctioned several days ago.The CPI (Maoist), a merger of the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) and People’s War, had called the rally under the banner of the Krantikari Jansangarsh Ekjutta Samiti. The ban on the rally was announced in newspapers and on public address systems as late as this morning. By then, supporters were on their way to Patna. Police clamped down on the participants at the railway station. Among those arrested were Sukhwinder Kaur, Tara Singh and Rambali. Gadar skipped the rally due to an illness. ‘‘We had taken several people into preventive custody but most were let off after verifying their antecedents,’’ City SP Shaleen said.Officials of the state police said the sudden turnaround to impose a ban was due to a directive from the Union Home Ministry. The Ministry had warned the state that it suspected ‘‘the rally would be a platform for anti-national activities’’, he said. There was also possibility of some wanted leaders of the underground outfit from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and AP participating in the rally, officials said.The Krantikari Jansangarsh Ekjutta Samiti has alleged police highhandedness. ‘‘If they wanted to ban the rally, they should have done it earlier. Hundreds of people have been injured in the lathicharge,’’ said Triveni Singh, a member of the committee. The samiti had called for observing December 10 as black day.
