Dinesh Gope, the head of the banned Naxalite armed outfit People's Liberation Front of India (PLFI) active in Jharkhand, has been arrested in Biratnagar and secretly handed over to India by Nepal.
Before Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda's visit to India, the government arrested the Indian rebel leader and secretly 'extradited' him to New Delhi.
The Special Bureau of Nepal Police arrested Gope from around Biratnagar and handed him over to the Delhi Police secretly on May 21.
Prime Minister Dahal, who is also the chairman of CPN (Maoist Center), is going on a four-day visit to India from May 31.
Gope was a senior Naxalite leader from Khunti district of the Indian State of Jharkhand. He was underground for a decade and a half.
Posing as a Punjabi, Gope had been running an eatery in Biratnagar for 13 months, according to a high-ranking source of the Nepal Police.
He was placed on the 'Most Wanted' list by the Government of India. The government had announced a bounty of 3 million Indian rupees for his head.
The Indian government has registered more than 100 cases against him for alleged involvement in criminal activities, according to the online edition of the Times of India.
Indian security personnel were looking for Gope for the past 15 years. After Gope's arrest, he was handed over to Delhi's 'Special Bureau', a high-ranking source of Nepal Police informed Nepalkhabar.
However, the Nepal Police has not officially informed about the arrest of Gope.
The Indian media, including the English edition of the India Post and the East Coast Daily, prominently featured the news of Gope's arrest. Some Indian media reported that Gope was arrested in Nepal, some published news that he was arrested near the Nepal-India border, and some in India.
The arrest and extradition of the Indian Maoist leader by the Maoist-led government in Nepal is viewed as meaningful.
Influenced by the Indian Naxalite movement, the then CPN (ML) revolted in Jhapa in 2028. The current CPN (UML) is the modified version of that party.
The CPN (Maoist Center) led by the incumbent Prime Minister Prachanda also considered the Naxalite movement as a catalyst for the revolution during the decade-long Maoist insurgency in Nepal.
