Malkhan Singh was picked up from a forest in Habibpur
Statesman News Service
Malda, 13 April
In what may be termed as the biggest success in recent years, Malda police, in a joint operation with the Central forces, this morning arrested the ‘most wanted’ militant of the Kamtapur Liberation Organisatioin (KLO), Malkhan Singh, alias Madhab Mandal.

The 32-year-old northern chief of the organisation was nabbed at
around 2  a.m from
Jamalpur forest in the Mangalpura gram panchayat under the Habibpur police station.
A modern foreign-made automated rifle of the HK-33 series, 112 cartridges (5.56 mm), Rs 40,000 and counterfeit currency notes worth Rs 85,000 were recovered from Singh
.
Chief judicial magistrate Sumitra Deb today sent him to 14 days’ police custody.
At least nine serious cases under non-bailable sections like murder, abduction, threat to kill and fake currency peddling are pending against Singh.

He is the prime accused in the bus-firing case at Kalipukur area in Habibpur on 27 December, the murder of BJP leader Nripen Mandal in Habibpur on 16 June 2013, and a bomb explosion in Gazole on 25 June, 2013 that claimed a life. Police sources said that during interrogation, Singh admitted his involvement in these cases.

“Malkhan told us that he killed the BJP leader to capture the locality. His motive behind the Gazole explosion was to spread terror. He has also admitted that he opened fire on the bus in December last after the bus owner refused to cough up the money he had demanded,” a senior police officer said.
He added that Singh regularly visited Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan to meet KLO&’s top leaders.
DIG, Malda range, Satyajit Bandyopadhyay, along with Malda SP Rupesh Kumar, additional SP Shyam Singh, DSP (Headquarters) Siddharth Dorji, and police officers of the Habibpur and Bamangola police stations who joined the operation to arrest Malkhan early this morning told reporters that they
acted on a tip-off and that a special team of police from the Habibpur and Bamangola police stations arrested Malkhan Singh from the dense Jamalpur forest.

Prior to the police operation, the forest was encircled by SSB jawans of the 40th battalion.
Mr Bandyopadhyay said Singh was supposed to hold a meeting in the forest. However, no other KLO militant was present there when he was nabbed. The DIG added that Singh underwent arms training on the Bhutan border in 2000 and was appointed chief of the fourth battalion of the KLO. He also said that Singh directed several militant and disruptive activities in North Bengal in recent times.
“Malkhan was adept in using firearms of any category and skilled in explosion of grenades too. The automated HK-33 rifle that was recovered from him is generally used by Bodo militants. Malkhan got it from an Assam-based militant outfit one-and-a-half-years back,” he said.

“Malkhan&’s arrest before the general elections is indeed a huge success. Police personnel who conducted the operation to arrest him will be rewarded.”