West Bengal STF Arrests Top Maoist Leader Akash in Purba Medinipur

The Special Task Force of the West Bengal Police arrested Asim Mandal, alias Akash, a central committee member of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), from Patashpur in Purba Medinipur district on Thursday, September 17, 2026.

Akash, who joined the Maoist insurgency in the 1980s, held the posts of central committee member and secretary of the party's West Bengal State Committee-I. Bounties totalling ₹2.20 crore had been declared on him — ₹1 crore by the Jharkhand government and ₹1.20 crore by the Odisha government.

Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said the arrest reflected the state's zero-tolerance approach to extremist ideology. He stated that Akash had evaded law enforcement for more than 15 years across inter-state forest belts and was traced through sharp technical intelligence, which he described as evidence of the police force's operational competence. The government, he added, would not permit any attempt to revive or expand the network of "Red Terror" within the state's borders.

According to officials, Akash took charge of the Bengal unit of the CPI (Maoist) in 2011 after the death of senior commander Kishenji, alias Mallojula Koteswara Rao. A native of Paschim Medinipur, he had been active in Jharkhand in recent years as the insurgency declined in West Bengal following Kishenji's death.

Kolkata Police Commissioner Ajay Nanda said the force had been tracking his movements for a long time. Akash entered Patashpur a few days ago to seek shelter and was arrested on Thursday based on internal inputs, he said. Police are interrogating him to uncover operational details about active cadre networks.

The Commissioner indicated that the government might consider extending support for his return to the mainstream, adding that willingness to return was the foremost condition and that any such step would follow the completion of legal proceedings.

Maoist insurgency had gained strength in the mid-2000s in the Jungalmahal region along the West Bengal–Jharkhand border, including Purulia, Paschim Medinipur and Jhargram. It declined after 2011, following Kishenji's death, as the state government launched coordinated operations with the Centre involving paramilitary forces and state police to dismantle rebel bases. A surrender-cum-rehabilitation scheme was also introduced to bring Maoist leaders back into mainstream society.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had set a deadline of March 31, 2026 to end Left-wing extremism across the country. Akash's arrest comes months after the Jharkhand Police arrested another central committee member, Misir Besra, from Dhanbad on June 28, and after central committee member Patiram Majhi, alias Anal Da, was killed by security forces on January 22. Majhi carried a ₹1-crore bounty in Jharkhand.