Agencies expose Maoist-run extortion and money laundering rackets
Sustained and coordinated crackdown by various agencies, including the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), has disrupted the financial networks of banned Maoist organizations in recent years.
NIA has a dedicated anti-Naxal vertical which has investigated over 100 cases and filed charges in almost 90 cases. Assets worth more than ₹40 crore were also seized.
Major cases include the 2019 Tiriya encounter (Chhattisgarh), in which five senior Maoist operatives were also charged, among others. 10 weapons and ₹4.03 crore cash seized in Magadh (Bihar) revival case. Among the accused was Pramod Mishra, a politburo member of the organisation.
One case in 2024 relates to a coordinated attack on three Central Reserve Police Force camps in Chhattisgarh (Dharmavaram, Chintawagu, Pamed). Among the accused in the indictment is a fugitive special district committee member of the CPI (Maoist).
In the 2019 Purnea arms and ammunition interference case, the agency filed a complaint against several accused, including Tritiya Prastuti Committee district commander Bhikhan Ganju. NIA is filing a case against several accused accused of looting 4,000 kg of explosives in the 2025 Odisha case.
Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), ED has seized assets worth more than Rs 12 billion and filed an investigative complaint against Maoists who target businessmen, contractors, workers and even truck drivers for “protection money”.
One case involved the People’s Liberation Front of India, a splinter group with influence mostly in Jharkhand. The group, led by Dinesh Gope, who is involved in many cases in Bihar and Odisha, collected money by blackmail in exchange for free passage for coal-laden trucks. The ED assessed the total proceeds from the alleged crime to be approximately ₹ 20 crore.
In May 2023, NIA arrested Gope facing 102 cases of murder, kidnapping, threat and extortion and carried a reward of ₹ 30 lakh. He had been on the run for almost twenty years. ED has attached assets worth ₹3.36 crore attached to it. Both institutions filed a criminal complaint.
The agency probed two brothers, Ashvini Varma and Tamesh Verma, in Chhattisgarh’s Rajnandgaon, who collected scrapped ₹500 and ₹1,000 currency notes from Maoists after demonetisation. Allegedly, Ashvini used the money to buy produce from local farmers, sold it and invested the proceeds in a farmland. The brothers divided the assets among themselves to avoid detection. In February 2022, the ED issued a freezing order under PMLA.
One important case involved Rambabu Ram, the self-styled secretary of the western district committee of the CPI (Maoist) in north Bihar. The man, who has been active for the last twenty years, is alleged to have committed murder, robbery and extortion. The ED focused on seven parcels.
Maoists were targeting businessmen associated with coal mines in Jharkhand’s Chatra and Hazaribag. At Magadh Amrapali coal block, trucks and contractors were regularly stopped by members of the Tritiya Prastuti Committee for cash collection. While the NIA took over police cases and filed criminal complaints, the ED seized movable assets and filed a prosecution complaint.
Musafir Sahni and Anil Ram, two alleged district commanders of the special committee of the CPI (Maoist), were operating along the Bihar-Jharkhand border. ED unearthed financial traces that revealed the funds were linked to immovable assets registered in the names of his relatives.
In the Pradyumn Sharma case, ED seized assets worth ₹68 lakh in 2018 and assessed the total proceeds of crime to be around ₹2 crore. He was allegedly in-charge of the Magadh region of the CPI (Maoist) Bihar-Jharkhand special district committee.
Pradyumn and his brother allegedly extorted money from businessmen through private contractors and used the money to buy land in Bihar’s Jehanabad. Between April and June 2016, he executed six sale deed agreements for 300 decimals of land. The institution seized eight parcels of land and a house, as well as some movable assets.
The ED found that around Rs 25 lakh was spent on the medical education of Pradyumn’s nephew, who travels frequently by air and is enrolled in a Chennai-based medical college. A large portion of the college fees was allegedly sent through two iron and steel companies in Chennai.
It was published – 31 March 2026 22:32 IST
