Dreaded and Rewarded Banned Maoist Outfit Sub-Zonal Commander Arrested

A team of Special Cell led by Inspectors Lalit Mohan Negi, Hriday Bhushan and Chandrika Prasad has arrested a dreaded Maoist militant Chandeshwar Yadav, aged 26 yrs, s/o Baldev Yadav, r/o Village Devaniya, District Gaya, Bihar, a Sub-Zonal Commander of banned Maoist outfit, who was absconding after carrying out an IED blast and firing ambush on police party. In this regard,  he was wanted in case FIR no. 523/14, u/ss. 147/148/149/325/341/342/307/302/353/333/427/504 /120-B IPC read with ss. 3/4/5 Explosive Substances Act and s. 17 (i)(ii) CLA Act and ss. 10/13 UA (P) Act, PS Itkhori, District Chatra, Jharkhand.

On 23^rd December 2014, Maoists had attacked a Police patrolling party by exploding an IED followed by heavy firing resulting in injuries to two jawans, one of whom later succumbed to his injuries, at Itkhori in Chatra district, 150 kms from Ranchi. The perpetrators had escaped taking advantage of the dark cover after around 30 minute encounter with the Police.

Investigations into the matter had revealed the involvement of accused Chandeshwar Yadav as a key executioner of the outrageous ambush. Since then, security forces were on his trail but this shrewd Maoist had been elusive and had recently shifted to Delhi. A reward of Rs. 5,00,000/- had been declared on his arrest by the Government of Jharkhand.

The team of Special Cell had received inputs that one of the senior Maoist commanders had taken shelter in one of labor colonies of Delhi and accordingly, had deployed sources in vulnerable localities to develop the inputs. On 2^nd August 2015, a specific input was received about the sighting of the senior Maoist commander in the area of Kapashera, which houses a significant population of laborers, who belong to Bihar and Jharkhand and are engaged as skilled workers in various industrial units located in Gurgaon. Accordingly, a trap was laid and accused Chandeshwar Yadav was apprehended in the evening hours from Naale Wali Gali, Kapashera, Delhi. He has been arrested u/s. 41 (1) Cr PC.  

Profile of Arrested Accused: Chandeshwar was born at Village Diwaniya, District Gaya, Bihar. He has studied up to 4^th class. His father is a manual labor and also owns a small plot of land for farming. After dropping out of school, Chandeshwar assisted his family in farming. Since the income from agriculture was meager, in March 2013, he purchased an auto to supplement his family income. While driving auto as a livelihood, Chandeshwar had a dispute over cattle shed with his real uncle and soon, this dispute took an ugly shape, when he was thrashed by his uncle and his family members one day while he was returning home after completing his day’s work as an auto driver.

Seeking revenge, Chandeshwar went to one Kaushal Yadav, a relative, who is a senior Maoist Commander and recruiter  and is a native of Chandeshwar’s village. Kaushal encouraged him to join banned Maoist outfit and promised him that if he will have the power of gun by his side, all his enemies will start respecting him. On this promise, Chandeshwar joined Kaushal Yadav and took oath as a member of the banned Maoist outfit. In May 2014, Kaushal took him to the jungles surrounding Village Barsoti,  where a Maoist camp was located. There, he met Indal Singh and Alok Yadav, two other senior Maoist, who indoctrinated him into the Maoist philosophy and exhorted him to take up arms against the State. Soon, Chandeshwar became an important member of this banned Maoist outfit unit and started visiting villages on foot to spread their message.

As Chandeshwar became a known face in the region, he also came on the radar of security forces. The unit of banned Maoist outfit, being handled by Chandeshwar,  was arrested with INSAS rifles looted from the security forces and ready IEDs,  which they used to carry in tiffin boxes while moving from village to village on foot, generally under the cover of darkness. At all places, they were hosted by banned Maoist outfit sympathizers,  who provided them with food, ration and other essential supplies.

In December 2014, Chandeshwar and his associates planned to attack a Police patrol so that they could loot their weapons for distribution amongst the growing rank and files of the terrorist organization. Towards this end, they decided to ambush a daily Police patrol,  which used to clear the road passing by the famous Bhadrakali temple located in Itkhori area.

Once the plan was set, Chandeshwar led his associates to the target area. They were carrying fully loaded INSAS rifles, explosive filled Tiffin boxes, wires, batteries, sambhal (agricultural implement) etc. The night preceding the incident, the IED was planted on the road and its activation wire was concealed at a safe distance within the thick jungles. After waiting in siege over the next day, a Police patrol jeep was spotted at about 8 PM. As soon as the jeep approached the ditch where the IED had been concealed, the blast was triggered and the patrol jeep turned turtle under its impact. Seeing injured policemen coming out of the jeep, Chandeshwar and his associates charged towards them and opened fire from their INSAS rifles. The injured policemen returned fire and an encounter ensued. However, before the Maoists could take full control of the situation by eliminating the Police team, another Police party arrived at the scene and Chandeshwar and his associates retreated taking advantage of the darkness.  Next day one of the injured  Police personnel had succumbed to his injuries.

  The clout of Chandeshwar grew after this audacious attack and he became famous in the area and security forces started tracking him. After Holi of 2015,  Chandeshwar shifted to Delhi to escape apprehension. The Special Cell, which works to contain terror from spreading its tentacles in the National Capital conducted a professional operation and the accused was arrested.