Two days after CPI (Maoists) leadership threatened to paralyse life in the state for illegally detaining their colleagues, Jharkhand police Wednesday evening produced a top Maoist couple in the Hazaribagh court amid tight security. The couple were taken to the residence of the Chief Judicial Magistrate GS Pandey who remanded them in judicial custody for 14 days.

Hazaribagh SP, Pankaj Khamboj, says the couple were arrested on Wednesday and were taken to the residence of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, GS Pandey, who remanded them in judicial custody for 14 days. Immediately they were sent to jail, Kambhoj said. Before taking them to the court, the SP allowed the media to interact with them for a little while at his office.

Maoist leader Koteswara Rao alias Kishanji claimed over telephone from his hideout in West Bengal that the police had arrested Ravi Sharma and his wife Anuradha, 35, both central committee members of the rebel organisation, on October 10.

“They are a big catch for us,” Kamboj said while producing the couple briefly before media Wednesday evening. He said Ravi Sharma was mastermind of several subversive operations carried out by the rebels including Jharkhand Police special branch inspector, Francis Indewar’s murder in October first week.

Maoists have strong presence in at least 220 of India’s 626 districts. In Jharkhand, they are active in all the 24 districts.

In September, Prime Minister Manomohan Singh had called the Naxalite insurgency the single greatest threat to the nation’s security. According to a Ministry of Home Affairs report, Naxalites this year have killed 341 people across 11 states till August 31.

Police in the affected states with the Center’s help have of late stepped up their vigil on the ultras leading to arrest of some important leaders. In the last two years, they have arrested six top politburo members including London educated Kobad Ghandy from Delhi on September 21 last.

“Our arrests are not going to dampen spirits of our comrades in continuing the revolutionary people’s war,” Ravi Sharma, who is known by various aliases like Arjun, Mahesh and Ashok Sharma, said while interacting with media at Hazaribagh SP’s office, around 60 kilometers away from state capital of Ranchi.

Replying to queries, he justified blowing up of schools and policemen killings, even if they were tribals and from poor families. “The proletarian fight would continue till Maoists occupy power in New Delhi,” said Sharma, who was doing Ph. D from Delhi University.

To a query, Anuradha alias Aruna alias Ranjita said women enjoy equal powers and are never exploited in rebel camps.

Sharma, resident of Andhra Pradesh’s Mahboobnagar district, had joined the organisation in 1997, Kishenji said. His wife, Anuradha was a bank staff before she joined her husband in the people’s war in 2004. She is an active member of the Maoists All Indian Women’s Wing, he said.

Well versed in English, the couple also has command over several Indian languages including Hindi, Telugu, Oriya, Bangla and Malayali. Police have seized a laptop from their possession.

“It carries several photographs of Maoists’ congregation in several places of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal,” said a police source.