Names of top-rung Red Ultras revealed

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AND.......Red Terror Budget

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Names of top-rung Naxalites revealed

18 Feb 2008, 0059 hrs IST, Vishwa Mohan , TNN

NEW DELHI: The Maoists may be striking with increasing impunity in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Orissa but the party’s top leadership is still dominated by leaders from Andhra Pradesh, with half of its politburo members coming from the state and as many as four of them from the banned outfit’s old bastion, Karimnagar district.

Identified as the single most important internal security threat by PM Manmohan Singh, the ultra-red leadership has been a shadowy entity for security forces. Not much has been known of the underground leadership that directs its cadres to commit violence in as many as 13 states and has links with associates in Nepal.

Investigators tracking Naxalite groups got a break when a top ultra, Misir Besra, fell into their hands. The politburo member's interrogation reveals not only details of the Maoist command structure, but also audacious plans to target big cities like Delhi and Mumbai.

Besra also indicated that more attacks like the one at Nayagarh in Orissa were in the pipeline. Besra, who was arrested in a joint operation of Jharkhand Police and CRPF, revealed that the Maoists had set up an "urban combat team" to target big cities like Mumbai, Delhi and states adjoining the capital like Haryana and Punjab.

Who’s Who in CPI (Maoist)

CORE LEADERSHIP

A 14-member CPI (Maoist) politburo is the main decision-making body of the ultras Seven out of 14 top leaders are from Andhra Pradesh — four of them from Karimnagar district Names of top leadership revealed by politburo member Misir Besra alias Bhaskar alias Sunirmal after his arrest in Jharkhand

POLITBURO MEMBERS

1.Muppala Laxmana Rao (15 aliases including Ganapathi, Ramana, Srinivas and Malanna) is party chief. The 58-year-old science graduate is from Karimnagar district, AP

2.Prashanth Bose (aliases Nirbhay, Mahesh, Kajal) is No.2 in the politburo. Belongs to West Bengal. Represents the outfit at meetings with international and Indian revolutionary organizations

3.Cherukuri Raja Kumar (aliases Uday, Parimal, Azad), aged 55 years. Belongs to Krishna district, AP

4.Mallojula Koteshwara Rao (aliases Prahallad, Ramji, Kishanji), aged 55 years. Belongs to Karimnagar district, AP. Responsible for merger of PWG and MCC. Currently looks after Bengal

5.Nambala Keshavarao (alias Ganganna, Basavraj), aged 53 years. Belongs to Srikakulam district, AP

6.Koppad Gandhi (aliases Saleem, Rajan, Kishore). In-charge of central propaganda bureau looking after party documentation

7.Pramod Mishra (aliases Ban Bihari, Janardhan). Belongs to Aurangabad, Bihar. Incharge of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and J&K

8.Sumanand Singh (aliases Sujith Da, Suman), aged 55 years. Native of Bihar. In-charge of ‘military’ activities in West Bengal. Considered very good in planning armed operations

9.Malla Raji Reddy (aliases Meesalanna, Sayanna, Sathenna), aged 55 years. Belongs to Karimnagar district, AP

10.Mallajula Venugopal (aliases Bhupathi, Sonu). Belongs to Karimnagar, AP Katakam

11.Sudershan (aliases Anand, Mohan, Birendar), aged 50 years. Belongs to Adilabad district, AP

12.Akhilesh Yadav (aliases Ramanaji, Prabodh, Bupesh), aged 65 years. Former school teacher and eldest politburo member. Belongs to Gaya, Bihar. His son too is a Maoist Balraj (alias BR), aged 50 years. Looks after publication. In-charge of north Bihar

13.Ashuthosh (aliases Bipul, Ashok), 45 yrs. Belongs to Jharkhand. Elevated to the top group after Besra’s arrest

ON MAOIST HITLIST (according to Misir Besra)

1.H J Dora Former AP police chief
2.Anil Palta IPS officer (led anti-Naxalite ops in Bihar)
3.Raman Singh Chhattisgarh CM Mahendra Karma Salva Judum founder
4.Babulal Marandi Former Jharkhand CM


vishwa.mohan@timesgroup.com

Red Terror - Budget

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Naxalites have Rs 60-cr budget for 'struggle'

18 Feb 2008, 0025 hrs IST,

Vishwa Mohan, TNN

NEW DELHI: The CPI (Maoist) has a budget of no less than Rs 60 crore for carrying out its armed struggle during 2007-09. And of that, Rs 42 crore is earmarked for arms, ammunition and explosives, Rs 2 crore for intelligence gathering, an indicator of how Naxalites are prepared to pay an entrenched ring of informers.

The remaining amount is allocated for transportation, computer training, propaganda and documentation. The revelations came from Misir Besra, a top-rung Maoist leader who was arrested in Jharkhand recently.

The statements by Besra, also known as Sunirmal, are significant in view of Friday’s attacks in Orissa as Besra, a "politburo" leader, had specifically spoken of police stations in the state being on the Naxalite hitlist, along with a few individuals, politicians and officers in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

The Nayagarh attack points to the authenticity of Besra’s "product". If his comrades knew of his arrest, the determination to still go ahead with the attack speaks volumes of the confidence and gumption of the ultras.

Even though the Naxalites have of late taken a beating in Andhra Pradesh, the group’s leadership remains firmly in the grip of comrades from the state. As many of seven politburo members are from Andhra Pradesh, with four — including party general secretary Muppala Lakshman Rao alias Ganapathi — coming from Karimnagar, a district long affected by Naxalite presence.

The secretive ways of the Naxalite leadership and its success in avoiding identification despite on-off peace talks had put investigators at a disadvantage. But now, agencies have an exact idea of the structure headed by a politburo comprising 14 permanent members and six "alternate" members.

While Ganapathi is party general secretary, the permanent members include Mallojula K Rao, Cherukuri Raja Kumkar, Prashanth Bose, Nambala Keshavarao, Pramod Mishra, Sumanand Singh, Katakam Sudershan, Akhilesh Yadav and Balraj. Each has a responsibility with respect to 'military' operations, intelligence, propaganda, training, documentation, budget and procurement of arms and ammunition.

Officials believe that most of them might have even been taking shelter in urban areas with the help of unarmed sympathizers whose number could be anywhere between 50,000 and 70,000 across the country. "Disclosures made by Besra about the leadership will now at least help us launch our efforts in the right direction as he gave us feature-wise details of the commanders and politburo members," said an official.

Though the politburo is the top decision-making body, lower cadres are being managed by regional bureaus, zonal/state committees, district/division committees and squad area committees. The basic armed unit, called dalam, has eight to 10 guerrillas trained in using landmines and launching surprise attacks.

While extortion from contractors, miners, tendu leaf traders and other forest produce, including ivory and sandalwood merchants/smugglers, is a basic means of finance, arms and ammunition are usually looted from the police. Besides, they procure explosives, mainly gelatine sticks, from contractors in mining areas.

A particular politburo member, Pramod Mishra of Aurangabad, Bihar, was made operational in-charge of New Delhi during the 9th congress of the Maoists. In the congress, held in the forests of Bheemband in Bihar for 10 days last year, it was decided to put one urban combat team specifically to identify targets in Delhi and Haryana.

Ganapathi is the man who heads the CPI (Maoist) and its armed wing, People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA), having nearly 11,000 armed cadres spread over as many as 13 states. He is certainly not the only one who runs such a huge ‘army’.

There are nearly 100 others who are part of the Naxalite command structure with their central committee comprising a team of 14 dedicated full-time politburo members. Security and intelligence agencies, however, do not exactly know where Ganapathi or others live and operate from. They found out from Besra that the top leaders shift their bases depending upon their own intelligence.

Besra has hinted at locations which encompass dense forest areas of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar (along the Nepal border), AP, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Abujmad in Chhattisgarh, the Palamau-Chatra belt in Jharkhand and the dense Dandakaranya forests in north Telengana region of AP are, however, considered the three main hideouts.

...... vishwa.mohan@timesgroup.com

Pak bid to wash hands of Dawood foiled by TOI

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Pak bid to wash hands of Dawood foiled

16 Apr 2007, 0026 hrs IST

Vishwa Mohan, TNN

NEW DELHI: Acting on the basis of a TOI alert, the United Nations Security Council has frustrated Pakistan's attempt to get Interpol acquiesce to its claim that it was not sheltering India's most-wanted don, Dawood Ibrahim.

While Pakistan had pulled off a coup of sorts by getting the international police body to buy its protestation about Dawood not being present on its territory, UNSC — acting in response to a query from TOI — has ensured that Interpol continues to regard Pakistan as the place where the fugitive don could be holed up.

Pakistan's success in getting the Interpol records — Special Notice — airbrushed of any reference to Karachi as the possible hideout of Dawood, since designated global terrorist, would have caused a major setback to India, which has maintained that Dawood is being hosted by ISI.

Interpol records listed two Karachi addresses — House (NU-37), 30th Street, Defence Housing Authority, and White House, near Saudi Mosque, Clifton — as Dawood's possible shelters. This marked an endorsement of India's stance.

The expunction of the two at a time when all evidence strongly points to the continued presence of the don in Pakistan could have, however, almost reversed the situation to the latter's advantage. It was a close shave, as Interpol, for reasons not clear, suddenly found merit in Pakistan's disclaimer, expunging both the Karachi addresses.

UNSC, which came to India's rescue by ensuring that one of the addresses — White House, Clifton — was put back on Friday, confirmed the "glaring change" to TOI. It was TOI which alerted a UNSC panel — Committee 1267, which is entrusted with the task of listing people aligned with Al Qaida and Taliban — to the missing Karachi addresses.....http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDcvMDQvMTYjQXIwMDEwMQ==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom

Black Money:........Germany offers black money data, India dithers.....the issue will remain live for years

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Germany offers black money data, India dithers

21 May 2008, 0044 hrs IST, Vishwa Mohan, TNN

NEW DELHI: Investigators in India might have their best chance yet to trace those Indians who have stashed away millions in the tiny tax haven of Liechtenstein, a small landlocked country between Austria and Switzerland, provided the Manmohan Singh government asks for the information on offer.

The dope on hundreds of rich Indians who have black money parked in Liechtenstein could be made available to the authorities here as the German government, which has obtained a list of account holders at Liechtenstein’s LTG Bank, is willing to part with the names.

Several countries including the US, the UK, Canada, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Ireland have already used the opportunity to zero in on their citizens who have evaded taxes and smuggled their wealth to the principality, the sixth-smallest country in the world. But Transparency International says India has maintained 'a stoic silence over the issue and has not approached the German government for this data'.

Expressing concern over the Indian government's apparently lackadaisical attitude in getting after offenders who have cheated the tax authorities of millions of dollars is quite surprising and the Indian chapter of TI - an organization campaigning to reduce corruption - has urged the government to take all necessary steps to seek the data.

Admiral R H Tahiliani, chairman if TI India and a former navy chief, said: ‘‘This money belongs to the people of India and it is possible that it has been tucked away in this distant country by those who have acquired it illegally and are now evading taxes.

"There should be complete transparency and accountability about this money and it is for the government to find this out and inform people," Admiral Tahiliani, said, referring to the black money stashed away abroad.

Indeed, the offer looks too good to refuse. It is a bit like being served secrets on a platter and if the government does not waste time looking a gift horse in the mouth, it could get data that might otherwise never be accessed given the laws that protect tax havens that often require specific proof of criminality. In fact, the dice is invariably loaded against investigators - for example the Hindujas were able to delay proceedings in the Bofors case by challenging each application filed by CBI.

Suspecting that the government's chariness could stem from fears that influential politicians and industrialists might be compromised by the Liechenstein data, TI has, in a statement, said: "It is alleged that this money belongs to rich and powerful politicians, industrialists and stock brokers and that is why the reluctance on the part of government of India (to get details from Germany)."

Liechtenstein, like Switzerland, St Kitts, Canary Islands, Antigua and Bahamas, has been a haven for wealthy people to hide their ill-gotten wealth away from the prying eyes of tax authorities. Referring to reports, TI mentioned that German intelligence agency - BND - has details of about 800 clients of LTG Bank - run by Liechtenstein’s ruling dynasty - and prosecutors are using this information to target suspected tax evaders.

"The ministry of finance and PMO have, however, not shown much interest in finding out about those who have their lockers on the secret banks of Liechtenstein which prides itself in its banking system," TI said. Referring to such banking systems, TI also said that secretive and non-transparent tax havens could be used for money that is related to drugs and terrorism. These accounts have been frequently used to channel money for purchase of arms....http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=Q0FQLzIwMDgvMDUvMjEjQXIwMDEwMA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom