A wanted rebel of Tritiya Sammelan Prastuti Committee (TSPC), Bhikhan Ganjhu, who was carrying Rs 10 lakh on his head along with his aide Rahul Munda were arrested in Ranchi, senior superintendent of police (SSP) S.K.Jha announced on Sunday.

Ganjhu, alias Netaji was zonal commander of TSPC, a breakaway faction of CPI (Maoists) and was also on National Investigation Agency (NIA)’s radar in connection to an ongoing terror funding case, said police. Ganjhu was wanted in as many as 26 cases related to arson, extortion, murder among other heinous crimes.

“Both were nabbed from Dhelatoli area under Sadar police station area in Ranchi. On March 16, we received a tip-off about them visiting Ranchi to collect levy amount. Soon, a special quick response team (QRT) comprising 18 members was formed for crackdown which remained successful,” said SSP.

Ganjhu is aged 40 while his aide is 29 years old and both hail from Piparwar in Chatra district. Police have also seized Rs 12.32 lakh levy amount from them besides seven mobiles, two routers, one laptop, a pan card, Aadhaar card of Rahul Munda, five debit cards, passbooks of different banks and one scooty, informed Jha.

On the cases against him, SSP said that they were filed in different police stations in Chatra and Ranchi police stations. Ganjhu was earlier a member of CPI (Maoist) but joined the TSPC in 2006.

“He (Ganjhu) was on the radar of Jharkhand Police and NIA in terror funding and smuggling of foreign arms,” he said.

Notably, the NIA had also declared him as one of the most wanted rebels after registering at least two terror funding cases against him (RC 05/2019 and RC 06/2018). Police sources said that NIA is also expected to take him in remand for questioning.