Who Is Dinesh Gope, Arrested Naxal Leader Who Could Have Been A Soldier

DINESH Gope, self-styled supremo of a proscribed Naxal Outfit in Jharkhand, was arrested by the National Investigation Agency in New Delhi in connection with a case of converting illegal demonitised money at a petrol pump. An absconder for nearly two decades, Gope has booked in 102 criminal cases and before his arrest carried a reward of Rs 30 Lakh.

These hundreds of cases registered against him span the eastern states of Jharkhand, Bihar, and Odisha. A majority of these cases relate to murders, abductions, threats, and extortion to raise funds for the People’s Liberation Front of India. This is a militant Maoist organisation that was formed in 2007.

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Who is Dinesh Gope?

A resident of Lapa Morha Toli, in Khunti district of Jharkhand, Suresh Gope had founded the Jharkhand Liberation Tigers in 2003. He had founded the group to launch an armed rebellion against corruption and the dominance of criminal gangs. Suresh was killed by the Jharkhand Police that same year, according to a Hindustan report. His brother Dinesh Gope, who had got a job in the army (but did not join) and was reportedly inspired by pre-independence revolutionaries like Shubhash Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh, took over the reins of the group. In 2007, he had given this organisation the name by which it is known today - People’s Liberation Front of India.

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He and his organisation is known to be engaged in a tense rivalry with the Communist Party of India (Maoist). Members of both organisations have killed each other in the past. However, several members of the CPI (Maoist) have also joined PFLI in the past. Gope believes that the Maoist made a false promise of revolution to the people after the Naxalbari uprising.

Gope was involved in extorting money and executing attacks with his PLFI team to terrorise businessmen and contractors. He would also allegedly invest the money raised from extortion in shell companies registered in the names of his family members and close associates, according to a report by the Hindu.

In 2016, the NIA registered a case against Gope after demonetised notes worth Rs 25.38 Lakh were seized from PLFI members. They were attempting to get these notes exchanged with the new ones by using petrol pump as a conduit.

In 2017, Jharkhand police had seized Gope’s two plots and a flat in capital Ranchi. The police had also announced a bounty of Rs 25 Lakh for any information about Gope. The NIA also announced Rs 5 Lakh later.

In 2022, a squad of the PFLI led by Gope and security personnel engaged each other in an encounter in a forest of Jharkhand’s Singhbhum district. The rebels had managed to sneak into the forest and escaped. Ever since, Gope had been changing his location to evade arrest. He was also working to regain PLFI’s strength in the Jharkhand.

When the NIA filed a second chargesheet in the 2016 case of exchaning illegal demonitised notes, in which it named Gope, it mentioned that the agency had attached 14 bank accounts and two cars, cash, and immovable property worth Rs 1 Crore. Gope’s PLFI is accused of carrying out hundreds of terror incidents in Jharkhand. They would recruit young persons by giving them motorcycles, mobile phones, and money.

They were involved in training and indoctrinating the youth. After arming them with lethal weapons PFLI would ask these indoctrinated youths to carry out terror incidents, NIA informed on Sunday.

(With agency inputs)