By IANS
Raipur : A top woman Maoist commander was arrested Tuesday from steel city Bhilai after the overnight seizure of a huge haul of arms in this Chhattisgarh capital.
“We held Malti Usendi, one of the top-ranked Maoist militants from Supela area of Bhilai, 30 km from here, and recovered arms from her possession. She was the one who dropped eight bags containing 91 country-made pistols and 26 wireless sets at a busy square in Raipur Monday night which were seized by police,” Inspector General of Police Girdhari Nayak told IANS.
Malti is the wife of Gudsa Usendi, spokesman of the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist). He issues statements on behalf of the outfit’s frontal unit, Dandkaranya Special Zonal Committee, which is active in Chhattisgarh and is running a parallel government for decades mainly in the vast forested, mineral-rich interior areas of Bastar.
Police had sealed off the state border with Maharashtra, Orissa, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh and sounded alerts in all 18 districts after two people in a car, including the woman, dropped eight weapon-laden bags at Dangania area here.
“After last night’s seizure of 91 country-made, bigger size pistols and 26 foreign-made wireless sets and bundles of batteries, police sealed off the borders and finally the woman commander was tracked down in Bhilai today,” a top official in the police department said, not wishing to be named.
“Malti was active in Bhilai-Raipur region for past several years, mainly smuggling arms for top Maoist aides who are behind terror acts in 13 Indian states,” the official stated.
He added Malti’s 60-year-old associate Prafulla Jha, a freelance journalist, and his son-in-law Vinod Chandrakar were also arrested for their alleged role in the arms drop.
Police claimed to have seized nine pistols, Rs.600,000 in cash, several mobile phones and one wireless set from Malti.