New Delhi: The Maharashtra Police on Wednesday arrested two commanders who run a large network of Maoists in several parts of India. 

The arrested men have been identified as Narmada alias Sujatakka and her husband Kiran Kumar alias Kiran Dada. 

The couple worked extensively to increase the network of Maoists in Bastar as well as the Maharashtra region. According to sources, they also recruited young people for Maoist training.

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Sujatakka and her husband after 2006 shifted to south Bastar division committee as secretary and played an important role in the recruitment of tribals. 

The couple was arrested on the basis of an FIR registered after the IED attack which killed 16 commandos in insurgency-hit Gadchiroli.

The couple, who was wanted in 52 cases, had a bounty of Rs 25 lakh. Narmada was hiding in an unknown location for almost 20 years and was the guerrilla commander of the Maoists. She also used to decide who will go underground and who will work on the ground among Maoist cadre. 

Narmada was also heading all operations against security forces and used to meet all the naxal heads in states including Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gadchiroli etc. 

She was also reportedly involved in deadly attacks on security forces in Sukma, Dantewada and Gadchiroli and she had planned the attack on BJP MLA Bheema Madavi this year. 

Narmada was also named in a case filed by police against Delhi University professor GN Saibaba who was arrested in the urban naxal case registered by Pune Police.

However, since the last few years, Narmada has not been well and was diagnosed with cancer. She was inactive and failed to get treatment in the jungles. 

Meanwhile, her husband Kiran was working secretly since 1999. He also headed the state-level committee several times and used to edit a magazine of Maoists called Prabhat and other literature.