The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on January 11 filed a supplementary chargesheet before a Special Court in Ranchi District of Jharkhand against four accused persons in a Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) extortion case (RC-21/2018/NIA/DLI), says NIA. The accused are - Manoj Kumar alias Manoj Kumar Yadav (arrested), Krishna Da alias Krishna Hansda (absconding), Sunil Manjhi alias Sunil Murmu (arrested) and Manoj Kumar Choudhary (arrested), all residents of Giridih District in Jharkhand. On January 22, 2018, after collection of levy amount, accused Manoj Kumar, while he was en-route to deliver the extorted funds to the cadres of CPI-Maoist, was arrested by State Police and levy amount of INR 600,000 along with other incriminating documents were recovered from his possession. The NIA took over the investigation of the case on July 21, 2018.
In a statement, the NIA said, “Investigation has established that arrested accused Manoj Kumar Yadav, was working as an associate/Over Ground Worker (OGW) of the CPI-Maoist, and was the conduit between the contractors and the banned organization. Investigation also revealed that arrested accused Sunil Manjhi, Regional Committee Member of CPI-Maoist, and absconding accused Krishna Da, Regional Committee Member and Secretary, North Chotanagpur Zone of CPI-Maoist were involved in raising funds by collecting levy through extortion for commission of terrorist activities by way of attacking Security Forces, damaging public and private property, disrupting public peace and killing innocent people. It was further established during investigation that Manoj Kumar Choudhary was also CPI-Maoist cadre who used to collect the levy amounts and hand over the same to the other senior members of the proscribed organisation.”