Maoists with spiked currency arrested in Jharkhand

Ranchi, Nov 29 (IANS) Five Maoists were arrested in Jharkhand on Tuesday with Rs 31.53 lakh in demonetised notes, police said.

Mithilesh Mandal, alias Gagdish, zonal committee member of Communist Party of India-Maoist was arrested with Rs 31 lakh in Dumka district, the police said.

Mandal was planning to get the cash deposited in a bank.

Four other Maoists, who were with Mandal, were also arrested. Police seized Rs 53,500 from them others.

Two pistols, live cartridges, one vehicle, five bank accounts in which money was to be deposited, seven mobile phones were also seized.

A total of Rs 3 crore have been seized in Jharkhand post the demonetisation by the Centre.

Maoists are using their network to deposit levy money in banks. In Jharkhand Maoists collect Rs 150 crore to Rs 200 crore in the form of levy.

On November 15, Maoists killed a nursing home owner in Jharkhand's Serikela-Kharsawa district after he refused to deposit "black money" in bank.

On November 10, police arrested Nand Kishore, a petrol pump owner from Bero on the outskirts of Ranchi. He was carrying Rs 25 lakh cash, that he was going to deposit in bank.

During interrogation, Kishore admitted that the money belonged to the banned Maoist organization, People's Liberation Front of India (PLFI) supremo, Dinesh Gope.

Kishore was to deposit the money in his account in the name of petrol and diesel sales.

After the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8, Maoists were using their white-collared network to turn their black money into white, the police officer said.

Police sources say that contractors, petrol pump owners, mining area contractors, officials, and leaders falling in Maoist bastion areas were put under close watch.