Maoist wanted in Jharkhand held in Delhi

New Delhi, May 11 (IANS) A Maoist wanted for the killing of a Jharkhand Police officer has been arrested in the Indian capital, police said Friday.

Pradeep Kumar Singh, 42, was said to be involved in several crimes including the murder of Jharkhand's Lohardaga Superintendent of Police Ajay Kumar in 2000.

Singh was nabbed by Delhi Police Crime Branch Thursday afternoon from Sector 24 in Rohini area.

Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Chand told IANS: "Singh had fled after killing Kumar and was in hiding for some time."

Singh, originally from Nindi village in Latehaar, joined the erstwhile People's War Group in 1990.

During interrogation, he told police that he was active in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal.

In October 2000, he was a member of a Maoist group that ambushed a police patrol led by Kumar.

The group then split to evade police. Singh fled to Punjab and worked there for almost five years to evade detection.

"He went back to Jharkhand. But in an operation by police in February this year, some of his group members got killed and some were injured. Kumar escaped and came to his uncle's residence in NCR area," said Sanjay Kumar Jain, Delhi's Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime and Railways).

Singh has three sons. His elder son Rakesh is the local area commander of the Maoist group and has numerous cases of kidnapping and murder pending against him. He is one of the most wanted men in Latehaar, police said.