Kolkata: Three CPI (Maoist) members from the Bengal squad — Ramprasad Mandi alias Sachin, his wife Mita Sahu and Jaba Mahato alias Gauri — are expected to formally surrender in Bengal within days after nearly two decades in armed underground activity, police sources said. Officials are completing paperwork under the state rehabilitation policy following sustained operations across Jharkhand and Bengal.
Sachin, from East Singhbhum’s Jhunjhka village, is a Bengal-Jharkhand-Odisha regional committee member carrying a Rs 25 lakh bounty and faces 44 cases in Jharkhand and additional cases in Bengal. Mita, from Sonachura in Nandigram, East Midnapore, is an East Singhbhum area committee member with 19 cases and a Rs 10 lakh bounty. Jaba’s surrender follows the arrest of her husband Madan Mahato alias Charan — a regional committee member with a Rs 15 lakh bounty — who urged her from custody to contact her brother and return to civilian life. Jaba, a zonal committee member, had married Madan in Laljal forest in 2006. After Kishenji’s death in 2011, repeated operations pushed the Bengal Maoist brigade into Jharkhand’s Saranda forests.
Sachin’s father Sanatan Mandi said he had been told his son and daughter-in-law had returned. “My only wish was to see him return to normal social life before I die,” he said. Police link him to major attacks including the Sankrail police station raid, the Shilda EFR camp attack and an attack on then CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s convoy. Police took Sachin to forested areas of Seraikela-Kharsawan and East Singhbhum with Jharkhand Police and COBRA commandos, recovering two INSAS rifles, magazines, bullets and other items. Recent attempts to move toward Dalma ended in arrests and searches, leading Sachin, Mita and Jaba to decide to lay down arms.