NIA files charge-sheet, names top Maoist leader Ganapathy

National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed a charge-sheet with the NIA court in Kolkata on Monday naming the top Maoist leader Ganapathy and four others.

Mupalla Lakshman Rao, alias Ganapati, is the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Maoist).

The name of the top leader of the rebel group has come up in the charge-sheet in connection with the probe that the NIA had undertaken in connection with the arrest of another of their top leader Sadanala Ramakrishnan. He was arrested from College Street in Central Kolkata in 2012 along with two other Maoist leaders. The Special Task Force (STF) had arrested the Maoist leader and seized Rs 96 lakh cash, firearms, ammunition and Maoist literature from him.

The case was later taken up by the NIA and the investigation revealed connection between Sadanala and Ganapathy. The 67-year-old leader of the rebel group Ganapathy has a bounty of Rs 2.52 crore on his head. The police have information that the Andhra Pradesh-born Maoist leader could be present in Chattisgarh.

The arrest of Sadanala from College Street was considered as a major breakthrough by the Kolkata Police's STF and it had helped the NIA to get several information about the activities of the Maoist in other states adjoining to Bengal.

Several top leaders of the Maoists who were in charge of the activities in Bengal were either got arrested or they have surrendered and returned to mainstream life after the death of Kishanji.