Maoist leader admits Nepal link

Close ties between the Maoist leaders in India with their Nepal counterparts have been confirmed. This has been revealed following the interrogation of top Naxal ideologue Kobad Ghandy, currently in custody of Delhi Police’s Special Cell.

The issue of whether Indian and Nepali Maoists are in touch and working in tandem has been a subject of intense speculation for the last many years, but Ghandy’s statement provides an insight into how the two sides had gone about building confidence.

A New Delhi newspaper managed to get exclusive access to the 63-year-old’s secret interrogation report as well as the disclosure statement he made in the presence of witnesses to senior Delhi Police and intelligence officers.

Asked about the “confessions” made by Ghandy, his lawyer Rajesh Tyagi claimed: “It has been forcibly extracted.” Arrested on September 20, 2009, Ghandy has been booked under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2008.

In his statement, Ghandy talks of four visits he made to Nepal along with some other top CPI (Maoist) leaders, including Kishenji, between 2002 and 2006. Ghandy also refers to a visit in 2002 by two persons from the Philippines, who provided arms training to CPI (Maoist) cadre in jungle warfare and handling of explosives.

A member of the powerful Central Committee and Politburo of the CPI (Maoist), Ghandy has also revealed details of a 12-day meeting held in November 2007 in a Jharkhand forest, attended by all top Naxal leaders, where resolutions were passed to “create large-scale violence throughout India,” target VIPs, kill police personnel including those belonging to special forces like the Greyhounds, and to “lead a mass movement in and around Lalgarh, Purulia, Bankura”.

The November 2, 2008, attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and then Union steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan in West Midnapore, that narrowly missed them but left six policemen seriously injured, was a result of the same meeting. Last week, a team of the West Bengal Police had questioned Ghandy at Tihar Jail in Delhi in connection with the attack.

Talking of the Nepal connection in his statement, Ghandy says that in 2003, he held meetings with Central Committee members of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). He names one Vasant alias Ashok of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) as the leader with whom he held detailed talks about a possible collaboration. Another important functionary that Ghandy met and interacted with was Prashant alias Partho, who was one of the three representatives during the talks held by Nepali Maoists with the Nepal government.

The first time, in 2002, Ghandy says, he visited Nepal through the Gorakhpur (UP) border along with one Subramanium alias Sukant. This visit reportedly lasted one week and was held at the invitation of the Nepal Maoists, who wanted their Indian counterparts’ help to organise themselves.

In 2006, Ghandy says he again visited Nepal, this time at the invitation of the People’s Liberation Army of Nepal (PLA). Elusive Naxal leader Mallojula Koteshwara Rao alias Kishenji reportedly accompanied him on the trip.

On all these visits, the Maoists discussed strategies to attack the establishment and to overthrow their respective governments.

The plan to attack Bhattacharjee was reportedly among those finalised at a joint meeting of the Central Committee and Politburo held for 12 days in November 2007 in Saranda forest in Jharkhand, “one day bus/jeep drive from Ranchi”.

According to Ghandy’s statement, of the 26 Naxal leaders who attended the meeting, the important ones were Muppala Laxmana Rao alias Ganapathi (general secretary), Prashant Bose alias Kishan Da (incharge of Bihar and Jharkhand), Nambala Keshava Rao alias Prakash alias Gangana, Amitabh Bagchi alias Sumeet, Kishenji and Cherukuri Raja Kumar alias Parimal.

Among the resolutions passed, he says, was a decision to attack the Nalco unit at Damanjodi (Orissa), apart from attacks on police personnel, a plan to organise mass movements in Lalgarh and nearby areas, targeting important local CPM leaders, and looting of banks in Riga, Sitamarhi (Bihar).

The leadership also finalised a 15-page “technical circular” to the cadre to evade arrest. Ghandy tells interrogators he had 12 aliases that he used to hoodwink police and anti-Naxal forces.

Under these various aliases, Ghandy says, he had written articles for Kolkata -based English publication Voice of Vanguard as well as several books, including World Economic Crisis-Capitalism in Coma that was published by Radical Publication in Kolkata and Philosophy Made Simple published in Mumbai by a professor of St Xaviers College. He wrote some of these articles under own name Kobad.

Ghandy also provided details of safe houses maintained in states like Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Bihar and Orissa.

- Asian Tribune -