3 Naxalites arrested in Jharkhand's Latehar

Three Naxalites were arrested in Jharkhand's Latehar district on Thursday, police said.

They were arrested from Dakadiri forest in Balumath police station area, about 110 km from capital Ranchi, a senior police officer said.

They were identified as Tritiya Sammelan Prastuti Committee (TSPC) sub-zonal commander Viraj Ganjhu, who had a bounty of Rs 5 lakh, area commander Nathuni Singh and Vijay Bhuiyan, he said.

A loaded AK-47 rifle, a country-made revolver, 87 bullets, eight mobile phones and pamphlets of the banned organisation were recovered from them, Latehar's Superintendent of Police (SP) Anjani Anjan said.

"We got a tip-off that TSPC extremists were hatching plans at Dakadiri forest to carry out some incident. Acting on this information, two separate police teams were set up, the place was raided and the extremists were arrested," he said.

Ganjhu was involved with various extremist organisations over the last 13-14 years, and was wanted in several cases, he said.

He earlier went to Nepal and got special training in technical operations. After returning, he was training the extremists here, the officer said.

Anjan said TSPC was mainly involved in extortion in the area.