Top Maoist activist Sandeep Yadav found dead in Gaya

GAYA: A hardcore Maoist activist, Sandeep Yadav alias Vijay Yadav, popularly known as ‘Bade Saheb’ among the ultras for his style of functioning, was found dead near his native village Baburamdih under the Imamganj (Lutua) police station area in Gaya district on Wednesday.
Sandeep was wanted by the police of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.
He was carrying a reward of Rs 30 lakh on his head – Rs 25 lakh by Jharkhand government and Rs 5 lakh by Bihar government. In Bihar, 145 cases related to naxal violence were lodged with different police stations against Sandeep.
Sandeep was heading the Bihar-Jharkhand central area committee of CPI-Maoist and was a member of the outfit’s special area committee. He was active in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal for the last more than 25 years. He was also a member of CPI Maoist politbureau.
Amid speculations that he might have been killed or died due to ailments, police got postmortem done at ANMMCH here on Thursday. A medical board was constituted to conduct the postmortem. The postmortem was done in presence of a magistrate and the entire process was videographed.
Sandeep was the only Maoist commander against whom Enforcement Directorate (ED) had taken action in 2018. His huge movable and immovable property in Delhi, Noida, Ranchi and Aurangabad in Bihar were attached. Gaya SSP Harpreet Kaur, who visited Baburamdih village, said Sandeep’s body was handed over to his family members after postmortem. “The postmortem report is awaited,” Kaur added.