Maoists surrender in West Bengal

West Midnapore/Gumla, Jan 18 (ANI): Four Maoists, who had earlier laid down their arms in front of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, officially surrendered in front of the West Midnapore Police on Tuesday.

Lambodar Majhi, Bhajohari Mahato, Sukhdeb Mahato and Karan surrendered before Banerjee who was attending a youth festival organised at the Jhargram Stadium to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.

They arrived in at the West Midnapore police station and officially surrendered before Inspector General (Western), Gangeshwar Singh.

Revising the rehabilitation package for the Maoists who gave up arms voluntarily, Banerjee announced that the Maoists would get rupees 2000 per month for three years while the state government would institute a corpus fund of fixed deposit worth rupees 150 thousand for three years meant for their reformation programmes.

Earlier, ten Maoists who had surrendered before the state chief were given ample sum to enable them start a life afresh.

"First of all I want to say that they are not surrendering today because they already surrendered in front of the Chief Minister at Jhargram on January 12. These four, three from Purulia and one from West Midnapur, are all active Maoists. They informed us about their surrender in front of Chief Minister and we felicitated them under the Maoist rehabilitation package," said Singh.

In Jharkhand, Maoists gunned down a couple in Gumla District of the state. The reason for the killing is yet to be determined as police had sealed off the area and was searching the forest for any traces of the ultras.

The couple is survived by their son, who was also attacked by the Maoists, but managed to escape unhurt. (ANI)