'Kishenji's aide targeted Nandigram since 2007'

Top Maoist leader Vekanteshwar Reddy alias Telugu Dipak, a close aide of Kishenji who was arrested in Kolkata on Tuesday, had focused on Nandigram, where a land war had been fought in 2007, besides adjoining Khejuri and Kolkata, a senior police official said.

"Since the last three to four years, his focus was on Nandigram, Khejuri and Kolkata and he has been operating in West Bengal for 10 years," Additional Director General of Central Investigation Department Raj Kanojia said of prized catch Dipak, who was arrested from Sarshuna in the southern fringes of the metropolis on Tuesday night.

Suspected to be the mastermind of the attack that killed 24 Eastern Frontier Rifles personnel in Silda in West Midnapore district on February 15, Kanojia told a media conference that he was also wanted in other states.

"He is also wanted in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattishgarh and Jharkhand from where police teams will arrive," he said.

Involved in the killing if several policemen and political leaders and workers in Bankura and Purulia district, Dipak is the second senior Maoist leader to be caught after ideologue Kobad Ghandy.

Stating that Dipak was a mechanical engineer and an explosives expert he said he was also involved in organisational work of Maoists.