Prominent Maoist leader Sabyasachi Goswami aka Kishore was arrested from a hideout close to the Bengal-Jharkhand border on Thursday night.
Police recovered Maoist literature and a 9mm pistol from Goswami, who was produced in court and remanded in police custody for 14 days on Friday.
Acting on a tip-off, the special task force of Purulia police raided Matha forest at Baghmundi, 3km from the Jharkhand border, and arrested Sabyasachi, 55, from a house in Chounia village.
“We received some specific information about Sabyasachi Goswami, a central committee member of the CPI (Maoist), in a house at Chounia village in Matha forest of Baghmundi. Our team raided the hideout and arrested him,” said Abhijit Banerjee, superintendent of police in Purulia.
Goswami, originally from Ghola in Sodepur, North 24-Parganas district, has been arrested at least five times since 2004 in connection with alleged Maoist activities. In 2022, he was last arrested from a village in South 24-Parganas but walked out on bail.
Purulia police said they had been receiving inputs from their counterparts in Jharkhand about Goswami's movements in forest areas along the interstate border.
“We regularly exchange information.... Based on such an exchange, we managed to arrest him this time,” SP Banerjee said.
Purulia has witnessed Maoist activities for years.
Sources said the National Investigating Agency (NIA), probing ultra-Left activities in Assam, had been looking for Goswami for allegedly masterminding the Maoist movement in the Northeast.
The central agency had also announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for any tip-off about Goswami.
Purulia police said Goswami was wanted in several cases by various state and central agencies, and in one case in the district.
Police sources said Goswami was trying to influence poor villagers by accusing local Trinamul leaders of corruption in various welfare schemes.
A police source said that as part of Goswami’s regrouping strategy, he had been supplying arms to villagers in the Jungle Mahal area, under which Purulia falls.
“Goswami was trying to renew Maoist activities in Purulia to disturb peace and set up new Maoist squads in the villages surrounded by forests. We are investigating the matter seriously. We will interrogate him in our custody to know how many more people are involved,” said the Purulia SP.