NEW DELHI: The Union Home Ministry in one go has cleared a bounty of 1.7 crore on the heads of 17 most wanted men in the country, including five top Naxal leaders and a dozen absconding terrorists of the Indian Mujahedeen including many hailing from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh.

The decision was taken by Home Secretary RK Singh last week following which the National Investigation Agency (NIA), in perhaps the biggest case of declaring such a huge bounty on 16 men in one go, has declared monetary awards for any information on the said terrorists which could lead to their arrest.The highest reward of 15 lakhs is on CPI (Maoist) supremo and chief commander, Mupalla Lakshman Rao , alias Ganapathy, who has evaded arrest for over two decades. A reward of 10 lakh each has also been declared by the NIA for information on the whereabouts of Ganapathy's three senior lieutenants in the CPI (Maoist) from Andhra Pradesh -- Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavraj, Thippiri Tirupati alias Deoji, Balmuri Narayan Rao alias Prabhakar and a five lakh award on one Somji Sajdev from Chhattisgarh.The NIA lodged a case against these five men on charges of framing the larger conspiracy behind CPI (Maoist) collecting explosives, prohibited ammunition and huge amount of money in a concealed manner to wage war against the country. A reward of 10 lakhs each has also been declared on 12 terrorists of the Indian Mujahedeen.