BULLET BAZAAR

In an otherwise depressed economy, you could call it a booming industry. On July 22, Jharkhand Police arrested Maoist leader Adesh 'Mangra' Ganjhu from the Serum forest in Latehar district.

- Amitabh Srivastava

He was a big catch, but the arsenal he led the cops to was an even bigger surprise: 7,000 rounds of live cartridges, eight walkie-talkies, disassembled parts of sophisticated weapons, including AK-47 rifles. The real shocker, as superintendent of police (SP) Anjani Anjan describes it, was the seizure of 30 high-explosive (HE) hand grenades used only by the armed forces.

A month earlier, on June 23, the Gaya police had arrested another Maoist, Ashok Singh Bhokta, and seized two AK-series guns and nearly 800 live rounds from him. In ordinary circumstances, the seizures would have raised a discomfiting question: where are the Maoists sourcing sophisticated weapons from? Except, they only seem to be dipping into a common resource pool.

Proof came, strikingly enough, during the July 18 presidential election. There happened to be one vote that could not be cast: that of Anant Singh, a five-time MLA from Mokama, Bihar. The RJD lawmaker had just been disqualified three days before, on July 15, following conviction in an Arms Act case. An AK-47 rifle, cartridges and two grenades had been recovered from his home in Ladma village near Patna in August 2019. Singh has got a 10-year jail term-incidentally, the bahubali's first conviction, although he has over two dozen cases of extortion, attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy registered against him.