The security forces arrested Sunil Mahto, a key accused in the Jnaneswari Express derailment case, from Midnapore West district, a senior police official said.
The Criminal Investigation Department on Saturday hinted that former Communist Party of India - Marxist minister Sushanta Ghosh could be subjected to a lie detector test, as an unspecified number of cartridges were seized during a search of his three residences in West Midnapore district and Kolkata on Saturday."We might go for a polygraph test of Ghosh if needed," a senior officer of CID said. Ghosh, the sitting legislator of Garbeta, was arrested on August 11.
The family members of slain top Maoist leader Kishenji on Friday alleged that he was killed in a fake encounter and demanded that his body be handed over to them for performing the last rites. Molajula Koteswar Rao, 58, better known as Kishenji, was gunned down by security forces in a forest in West Midnapore district of West Bengal. He hailed from Peddapalli in Karimnagar district. =
The Maoists on Friday demanded an independent probe into the circumstances leading to the death of their top leader Kishenji in West Midnapore district.
An alert has been sounded on the Andhra-Orissa border (AOB) and in some Telangana districts of Andhra Pradesh in the wake of the killing of top Maoist leader Kishenji in an encounter.
Top Maoist leader Kishenji has again become active in West Bengal's Jungle Mahal area, according to intelligence reports. "Kishenji was present in more than one meeting held in Lalgarh and adjacent areas in West Midnapore district in the last half of June, in all probability on June 22 and 23," said the reports. Joint operations in the area have come to a virtual standstill and six teams of the elite CoBRA force have moved to neighbouring Jharkhand.
The human toll in the floods and relentless rain across the country reached almost 200 by Thursday, even as thousands in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Assam, Odisha, West Bengal, and elsewhere were forced out of their homes into temporary shelters.
Virtually throwing a challenge to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who has given a seven-day deadline to them to lay down arms, the Maoists on Wednesday called a 24-hour bandh in Junglemahal on October 22 - the day the deadline ends.
G M Rao is looking for his son-in-law, who was in the S-3 compartment of the ill-fated Mumbai-bound Gyaneshwari Express, which derailed near Jhargram in West Midnapore district in West Bengal on Friday morning.
Banerjee urged the Centre to rethink about those who could not manage to appear for the crucial test.
With his exit, the TMC will lose a crucial, politically influential vote catcher in the Jungalmahal region and areas in minority-dominated Murshidabad, and the BJP will get a face it badly needs, especially in rural Bengal, reports Aditi Phadnis.
The Centre on Thursday said the person killed in an encounter in West Midnapore was most probably top Maoist leader Kishenji and it was awaiting a final confirmation from the West Bengal police about the matter. "Most likely it is Kishenji. The officers on the spot said that it is Kishenji and most likely, 99 per cent it is Kishenji," Union Home Secretary R K Singh told reporters while reacting to reports about the killing of the Maoist leader.
Women in Birhandi village of West Bengal's West Midnapore District lodged a complaint on Saturday with the sub divisional officer at Jhargram, accusing security personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force of sexually assaulting them.Corroborating their charges, several villagers claimed that paramilitary forces tortured them during the anti-Maoist operations and they allegedly raped ten women in the village.
Maoists on Monday unleashed widespread violence claiming eight lives in West Bengal, Bihar and Orissa during their 24-hour Bharat bandh against United States President Barack Obama's India visit. While four persons fell to the bullets of Naxals in West Bengal, two each were gunned down in Bihar and Orissa.
Improvised cannons and illegal firearms were seized from near a Communist Party of India-Marxist office and another area in West Bengal on Thursday by the police and the joint forces.
The West Bengal government on Thursday lodged a fresh complaint with the Centre against Trinamool Congress, accusing it of having a 'nexus' with Maoists.In a letter to Home Minister P Chidambaram, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee cited the arrest of two persons from a Trinamool Congress-run camp in Midnapore who allegedly had Maoist links. "The chief minister sent a letter to the Union home minister on the arrest of 2 persons on Monday with Maoist links," said sources.
The motorman of the Gyaneswari Express filed a complaint with the Jhargram GRP on Saturday against "unidentified miscreants" for the railway disaster in West Midnapore district.
An eight-year old boy was rescued from the accident site in West Midnapore on Friday.
The lines between reality, facts and opinions are blurred in Lalgarh, which remains trapped in a vicious circle of oppression and retribution, finds Sanchari Bhattacharya
The lines between reality, facts and opinions are blurred in Lalgarh, which remains trapped in a vicious circle of oppression and retribution, finds Sanchari Bhattacharya
A eight-member central team, headed by Joint Secretary in Union Agriculture Ministry E K Majhi, will visit drought-hit districts of West Bengal on Wednesday.
In a major breakthrough, the joint forces killed top-ranking Maoist leader Sasadhar Mahato and arrested a person at Kapgari in the Jamboni police station area in West Midnapore district.
One person was killed and 25 others were injured, including 18 security personnel, when a clash broke out between joint forces and Maoist-backed People's Committee against Police Atrocities supporters at Chunapara in West Midnapore district on Thursday.
Train services in the Kharagpur-Tatanagar section of South Eastern Railway were suspended on Wednesay after the railways received information that Maoists might target Mumbai-Howrah Duronto Express.
The Communist Party of India - Marxist on Saturday rubbished suggestions by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee that a political conspiracy was behind the Gyaneshwari Express disaster in West Midnapore, alleging that she was trying to cover up lapses and failures of her ministry in the incident. Senior CPI-M Politburo member Sitaram Yechury also said some elements were 'cynically' using the situation to further their petty partisan interests.
Rediff.com correspondent Indrani Roy Mitra and Photographer Dipak Chakraborty reached the accident site near Jhargram in West Bengal, where a Mumbai-bound train derailed, early on Friday morning. She chronicles the grim situation at ground zero and asks some tough questions.
A two-day bandh called by the Maoists in six states began on a bloody note with Naxals killing two policemen in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district and five Communist Party of India-Marxist supporters in West Bengal's West Midnapore district.
Five persons, including a woman, were killed and over 20 injured when villagers suspecting a house was being used by armed Communist Party of India-Marxist cadre gheraoed it and were fired upon from inside in Lalgarh area of West Midnapore district on Friday.
The saffron party, which had witnessed unprecedented growth in terms of vote share and mass base over the last few years, had opened its doors wide for leaders from other parties as part of its poll strategy, but that did not go down well with many senior leaders, who had once locked horns with the newbies from rival camps, sources in the BJP said.
The 10th IRB of Nagaland has been requisitioned by the Centre to fight Maoists in Bengal's Midnapore and Purulia districts, but a section of jawans staged protest at the police training centre at Chumukedima, near Dimapur, on Saturday alleging they had inadequate logistic support and 'vintage' firearms were provided to them.
As the West Bengal chief minister was busy containing the fallout of an internecine feud in her TMC following a rebellion by a redoubtable Suvendu Adhikari, the Centre shot off a fresh letter to her government to immediately relieve three IPS officers for central deputation.
A fresh gunbattle broke out between the Maoists and the joint forces in Salboni area on Saturday, while the police remained tightlipped over reports that top leader Kishenji was injured in Thursday's encounter at Hatiloth forest in West Midnapore district.
The Congress in West Bengal cautioned that the hold-up of a party leader from membership drive allegedly by Trinamool Congress activists in East Midnapore district of West Bengal could cast a shadow on relations between the two parties in the poll-bound state.
In a prize catch, the West Bengal police on Tuesday night arrested top Maoist leader Venkateswar Reddy, the suspected mastermind of the attack that killed 24 Eastern Frontier Rifles personnel in Silda in West Midnapore district. Additional Director General of Police of the Criminal Investigation Department Raj Kanojia said Reddy, alias Telugu Dipak, was arrested from Sarshuna on the southern fringes of the city.
Sixteen more bodies were found during search operations on Monday, taking the toll to 41 in the trawler capsize mishap near Talpatty island in the Hooghly river in South 24 Parganas district. "Sixteen more bodies were recovered, but the toll is likely to rise as there is a possibility of recovering more bodies," said South 24 Parganas District Magistrate N S Nigam.
Eighteen people, 15 women and 3 girl children, were drowned and many were missing when an overcrowded trawler carrying about 100 pilgrims capsized in Hoogly river at Talpatti island in East Midnapore district on Saturday.
A day after 26 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed and seven were injured in a Maoist ambush in Chhattisgarh''s Narayanpur District, the rebels have called for a shutdown in Jharkhand, Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and Chhattisgarh.
Monday's Naxalite attack on a joint forces camp in Silda, West Midnapore, has left the West Bengal government red-faced and the Union home ministry livid. At least 24 paramilitary jawans of the Eastern Frontier Rifles were killed last evening.
The Central Bureau of Investigation arrested a leader of Maoists-backed the People's Committee against Police Atrocities on Saturday for alleged involvement in derailment of Gyaneswari Express that left 148 people dead in West Midnapore district, the fourth arrest in the case.
The death toll in Gyaneswari Express derailment rose to 148 after some more bodies, trapped under the engine of the goods train which had rammed into the derailed coaches, were extricated by rescuers on Sunday morning.
