Senior Naxal cadre netted from city

NAGPUR: Anti-Naxal operation squad, guided by intelligence agencies, conducted a dramatic operation at Gaddigodam to round up an alleged senior Naxalite on Sunday. Bandu Meshram, alias Bhanu, who was working as tailor in city and is also learnt to be a member of the Maharashtra Rajya State Committee of rebels, was picked up from a bus-stop.
He was operating undercover in the city and elsewhere in the state including Gadchiroli and adjoining Madhya Pradesh.Sources said more arrests were likely later. Following the interrogation of the Surya Prabhakar, a state committee member, Bhanu was under surveillance for some time. Prabhakar had thrown light on the activities of Bhanu whose base was in Vidarbha.
It is learnt that Bhanu was inducted into the elite committee following the arrests of the senior cadres like Shreedhar Shrinivasan, alias Vishnu, and Vernon Gonsalves by ATS Mumbai and Arun Thomas Ferreira and Murli Ashok Satya Reddy by Nagpur police.
Bhanu was arrested on an earlier occasion in Chandrapur. Sources revealed that some cadres of Deshbhakti Yuva Manch, who have been rounded up in Chandrapur, had told the cops about Bhanu's role in the movement. It is learnt that Bhanu was part of the Chandrapur area committee. He has been taken to Chandrapur from Nagpur for identification.
Security agencies claimed that cops have found some photographs and other evidence of Bhanu's involvement with the rebels.