THE National Investigation Agency on Saturday searched multiple locations in Jharkhand’s Bokaro district in connection with the February 2024 attack on security forces by Naxals, according to an official statement. NIA teams conducted searches at the premises of suspects and overground workers (OGWs) at eight locations, and seized digital devices such as laptop, mobile phones and memory cards, along with SIM cards, pocket diaries and incriminating documents, it said. The suspects and OGWs whose premises were searched were associated with members of the banned CPI (Maoist) and used to provide logistical support and facilitate extortion of levy money, said the statement issued by the NIA. The case relates to the unlawful activities of leaders and cadres of CPI (Maoist) and the attack by the outfit on security forces in the forest area of police station Chatro-Chatti, Bokaro. On the day of the incident, commanders of the banned organisation had camped in the forest area (Sundari Pahari) along with 15-20 Naxal cadres to conspire to commit crime. , recruit youth and collect levy, and to attack security forces. Acting on inputs received, a team of Jharkhand Police and CRPF had initiated a search and combing operation, during which the Naxals had started firing indiscriminately, the statement said. The security forces had opened retaliatory fire but, taking advantage of the thick forest, the Naxals had managed to escape. The search operation had, however, led to the recovery of digital devices, naxal literature, and other incriminating articles by the local police, which registered the initial case. The NIA took over the investigation and re-registered the case in June 2024. 

 

THE National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested a key accused involved in collecting money to promote the ideology of a banned CPI (Maoist) outfit in Jharkhand, according to an official statement. Bachha Singh alias Bachha Babu Singh, a resident of Govindpur(B) in district Bokaro of Jharkhand was apprehended by the NIA on Friday, it said. NIA, which took over the case from the Anandpur Police in August 2023 found that Bachha Singh was the Secretary of Majdoor Sanghatan Samiti (MSS), currently banned by the Jharkhand State Government. The accused was associated with the proscribed terrorist organisation CPI (Maoist). “He was involved in the collection of money to promote the outfit’s ideology and strengthen its activities in Jharkhand and other places,” the statement said. The case was originally registered by the local police in July 2022 following the arrest of three CPI (Maoist) cadres in the Chaibasa district of Jharkhand, when they were on their way to meet Misir Besra, a Polit Bureau member of CPI (Maoist), to deliver letters written by Maoists Lajim Ansari and Saurabh, it said.