The Sashastra Seema Bal(SSB) on Thursday said it has apprehended a “hardcore” Maoist in a joint operation with police in Ranchi.
Manoj Bhokta, 22, was held on Wednesday in a joint operation launched by the 26th Battalion of SSB and the state police following a tip-off, and a pistol, a country-made pistol, six live cartridges and one motorcycle were recovered from his possession.
He, along with the recovered arms, was handed over to Hazaribagh police, the SSB official said.
A resident of Chatra district in Jharkhand, Bhokta belongs to Sashastra People’s Morcha a splinter group of Maoists, he said.
The official said the paramilitary force on December 26 also arrested a 35-year-old Maoist Bijoy Karmali a member of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha Parishad in a similar operation launched in Lurunga area in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh district.