Maoist that Bihar Police Declared Dead a Year Ago, Arrested in Gujarat by Anti Terrorist Squad

Guwahati: The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Gujarat police arrested a hardcore Maoist of Bihar on Friday. The shocking matter is that the Maoist arrested by ATS was declared dead by Bihar police a year back. He is now arrested from Vapi in Valsad district of South Gujarat.

The arrested Maoist is identified as Rajesh Ravidas alias Gopalji Prasad alias Uttam Ji who was engaged as a labourer in a factory. The 33-year-old Maoist had kept his identity hidden in the fear of being identified and arrested. Originally, he hails from Bahorama village under Nimchakbathani of Gaya district in Bihar.

Rajesh alias Gopalji was in the wanted list of the police in several crimes including the killing of 10 CRPF jawans in a landmine blast in the Aurangabad district. The reason for him to be declared as dead by the Bihar police is that the police assumed him to have died in a fierce encounter that took place at Nawada on April 8, 2017, between the CoBRA 205 battalion and the rebels. Police, after the encounter, found four dead Maoist and thought that even though Ravidas’ body is not there among the dead, he might have died with multiple bullet injuries.

As per the records of the Bihar police, Ravidas used to work as the main associate of Pradyuman Sharma who happens to the Bihar-Jharkhand (Magadh) special area committee in charge. Sharma is involved in multiple killing and extortion that exceeds even 50 and carries a reward of Rs 50,000 on his head.

Himanshu Shukla, ATS, SP, who nabbed the hiding Maoist on a tip-off, said, “He was working as security guard in Daman under the fake name Gopal Prasad. We would hand him over to Bihar police, who were on way to take him back.”

After the encounter incident in Bihar, Ravidas fled to Daman in 2018 and from there he came to Vapi. Back in 2002, when Ravidas joined the Maoists group, he acted as the area commander of Magadh eastern zone. It was then when he was allegedly involved in the IED blast of 2016 in Aurangabad and killed 10 CRPF jawans.

Also read: ‘Maoist problem has taken a turn for the worse’: P. Chidambaram