West Bengal police arrest top Maoist leader Akash

A team of the Special Task Force of the West Bengal Police on Thursday (September 17, 2026) arrested top Maoist central committee member Asim Mandal alias Akash.

Akash, who joined the Maoist insurgency in 1980s, had been serving as the Central Committee Member and also the Secretary of Communist Party of India (Maoist) West Bengal State Committee-I.

A total of ₹2.20 crore bounty was declared on his name, including ₹1 crore by the Jharkhand government and ₹1.20 crore by the Odisha government.

Highlighting that West Bengal maintained zero tolerance policy towards any extremist ideology, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said the accused was arrested from Purba Medinipore's Patashpur.