Police in East Singhbhum in Jharkhand district have announced a reward of Rs 1.34 crore for the information which leads to the location of the six Maoists including one senior leader of the group Asim Mondal who is decorated with a Rs 1 crore reward.
The six Maoists have been believed to have shifted their bases from West Singhbhum and are thought to be living in hiding in East Singhbhum as well as in areas bordering West Singhbhum in West Bengal, such as Purulia, Jhargram and West Midnapore.
25 posts have been displayed at various locations with the likenesses of Ramanarayana Asim Mondal, Ramprasad Mardi, Mita, Mangal Sardar, Malti Murmu and Bulu Mahato against the backdrop of Deputy Superintendent of Police Dayanand Kumar, he said. Police has beguiled people to provide information about them, promising that they would not reveal the names of informers.
Officials say they have been searching and patrolling hard and have not had any sighting of the six suspects in recent times. Joint operations are underway to track them by security staff from the two states, Jharkhand and West Bengal and central para-military personnel.
An intelligence input also said it had seen the group last in Basadera on August 19. They were not subsequently located in a joint operation, searches and inquiries were carried out in a few villages around them and in Dalma Hills area.
According to Jharkhand Police spokesperson Narendra Kumar Singh, which has under its watch, 18 Naxals are believed to be at large in the state currently. Between January and August, 113 Maoists were arrested and 50 surrendered to the police, he said, adding that 22 Maoists were killed.
During the same time, authorities also seized 111 weapons, 9,904 rounds of ammunition and Rs 6 lakh cash, police added. Police have insisted that operations against the Maoists will persist till the last person is arrested or neutralised.