Maoist money is under lens: MHA

Bhopal: Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Monday dropped hints that the Centre was in pursuit of Naxal money stashed abroad.

“I do not rule out the possibility of Maoists stashing their ill-gotten money in tax havens. The Centre is keeping a vigil on it”, Mr Singh who was a two-day-tour to Chhattisgarh to review counterinsurgency operations by security forces in the wake of Sunday’s attack on policemen in south Bastar district of Dantewada by ultras in which seven cops were killed, told reporters in Raipur.

The money mobilised through extortions by Maoists have been siphoned off by their leaders and may have been parked in tax havens, he said, adding, “Naxal leaders are sending their children to study abroad”.

Mr Singh said the Centre was trailing Maoists’ sources of funds and was determined to choke them.

“We are initiating steps to confiscate properties of Maoists,” he indicated.

He further hinted at the Centre’s plan to raise “Black Panther”, an anti-Naxal force in the line of Greyhounds of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Four India Reserve (IR) battalions have been raised for the purpose, he added.

Earlier commissioning the “Bastaria Battalion”, a wing of CRPF exclusively comprising youths including women from insurgency-hit Bastar, at Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh, Mr Singh said Maoists have suffered erosion of base and strength significantly.