Top Maoist leader arrested in Delhi

A top leader of the Communist Party of India-Maoist, who is in charge of spreading the organisation's influence in urban areas, was arrested in New Delhi, police sources said on Monday.

Kobad Gandhi, a CPI-Maoist Polit Bureau member, was apprehended by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police on Sunday night following an input received from intelligence agencies, they said. Police sources, however, refused to divulge from where he was arrested.

Gandhi was produced before a duty magistrate who sent him to 14 days judicial custody. Gandhi was also in charge of a CPI-Maoist committee on mass organisations, spreading its influence in urban areas and publication wing. Sources said he was also in touch with ultra left organisations abroad to get international recognition for his party. His wife Anuradha, also a top Maoist leader, died in April this year of malaria.

Within hours of Gandhi's arrest top Maoist leader Koteswar Rao alias Kishenji demanded the unconditional release of party
leader Kobad Gandhi who was arrested in Delhi.
   
Kishneji claimed that Gandhi was a post-graduate of Harvard University and an ideological leader besides being an important functionary of the banned organisation. "The government should release him immediately," Rao told PTI.