Kolkata/ New Delhi: West Bengal Police on Tuesday arrested a top Maoist leader who is believed top have masterminded the attack on a security force camp in Sildah killing 24 Eastern Frontier Rifles personnel.
The Maoist leader Venkateshwar Reddy alias Telugu Deepak was arrested from Kolkata by the West Bengal CID on the basis of a tip off.
Deepak is reported to be in-charge of West Bengal affairs and a close aide of Maoist supremo Koteswar rao alias Kishenji.
Police say Deepak, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, has more than 50 criminal cases pending against him.
He was arrested even as Maoists killed two people at a village in Bihar's Munger district late on Monday night.
According to police an armed Maoist squad raided the village late on Monday night and dragged the two people from their homes accusing them of being police informers.
They were taken to a secluded place and their throats were slit. The police have launched a search operation to nab the Maoists.
Meanwhile, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram called the 72-day ceasefire offer by Kishanji as "bizarre" and said the Maoists were attacking security forces while offering olive branches to the Government.
"It was a somewhat bizarre offer ... barely three hours after the so-called offer (by Kishenji on February 22), the CPI (Maoist) attacked a joint patrol party of the West Bengal police and the CRPF in Lalgarh, West Midnapore," Chidambaram said in new Delhi.
"In the seven days since then, there have been 18 significant acts of violence in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal," he said.
"I may point out that 11 lives have been lost including that of Inspector Ravi Lahan Mitra of Saranga police station in West Bengal," he said.
The Home Minster said he had offered to facilitate talks with the CPI (Maoist) provided they abjured violence.
(With inputs from CNN-IBN and PTI)
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