Maoist Leader Sabyasachi Goswami Was Planning to Build New Squad Including Females: STF

As many as 31 women from different parts of West Bengal were included in this new squad. They were to be trained as sleeper cells before directly working for the Maois.

Kolkata (West Bengal): Weeks after West Bengal Police arrested Maoist leader Sabyasachi Goswami alias Kishore carrying areward of Rs 10 lakh on his head from Purulia district on January 12, interrogations revealed that the accused was planning to build a new Maoist squad including several women.

As many as 31 women from different parts of the state were included in this new squad, a source informed the Special Task Force (STF) of the Kolkata Police, on conditions of anonymity. The source also added that these women in the area were subjected to severe torture and were deprived of various programs.

Investigators have learned that several top Maoist leaders have been hiding in Jangalmahal's Bankura and Purulia for long and have been gradually bringing in these women into the squad. The source said that educated women were added so that they could primarily work as sleeper cells of Maoists in several remote villages.

Lalbazar's STF detectives claimed that after these ladies got their hands dirty, they would be able to work directly for the Maoist cells. Bihar and Jharkhand Police alerted the STF earlier about the top Maoist leader hiding in Bengal after which he was nabbed.

"We had information about his movement near a jungle near the Jharkhand border and initiated a raid. Finally, we arrested him from the jungle near Chowniya", a police officer told the media. A few rounds of bullets, one 9mm pistol and some documents were recovered from his possession, he added.