Ranchi: The second in command for the most secretive revolutionary party, the CPI Maoist, Prashant Bose alias Kishan Da with his wife Sheela Marandi and 03 other cadres have been arrested by Jharkhand police from the area under PS Kandra, District Saraikela-Kharsawan in Jharkhand.
Kishan Da is one of the senior-most Maoist leaders and was the chief of the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI) before it merged with the CPI-ML (People’s War) to form the CPI (Maoist) in 2004.
He was one of the ideologues who oversaw the reunification of the revolutionary forces that led to the formation of the most-dreaded Maoist outfit CPI (Maoist). Kishan Da’s wife Sheela Marandi, another senior-most leader of the Maoist party and the only women member in the decision making Central Committee (CC) of the CPI (Maoist) was also arrested along with him.
Kishan Da is currently a member of the CPI Maoist Central Committee, Politburo, Central Military Commission (CMC) and secretary of the Eastern Regional Bureau (ERB) of the Maoist party.
Being the ERB secretary, he oversees and coordinates the revolutionary movement in North-East states, Bihar, Jharkhand, Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. Prashanth Bose is nearly 75 years old and is known to be ill.
He was believed to be operating from Saranda forests of Jharkhand. Prashanth Bose hails from Jadavpur locality in West Bengal. Kishan da also is known by his aliases like Nirbhay, Kishan, Kajal and Mahesh. Prasanta Bose’s wife Sheela Marandi is also another top Naxalite leader and is aged about 60 years and is currently a member of the Central Committee (CC).
She was earlier arrested in 2006 in Odisha and was released from a jail Rourkela. She was reportedly reinfected into the CPI (Maoist) about five years ago.
She is believed to be in charge of guiding the women organisations affiliated with the CPI Maoists, across the country. Sheela Marandi hails from Dhanbad district of Jharkhand and is known as Hema, Shpbadi, Asha, Budhani and Guddi.