(This story originally appeared in on May 09, 2018)

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate, which is probing the “ill-gotten” personal assets of left-wing extremists in Bihar and Jharkhand as part of a larger crackdown on Maoist funding , has attached/seized their properties worth crores of rupees, including several plots of land in Bihar and flats in New Delhi and Kolkata.The law enforcement agency, which has registered cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against leaders of CPI (Maoist) special area committees and attached their properties worth Rs 1.5 crore, has seized an additional Rs 1.43 lakh in cash, a fleet of cars and vehicles, around 20 acres of land and buildings from Maoist leaders and their relatives in Bihar and Jharkhand.The attached properties in the PMLA case against leaders of the CPI(Maoist) Bihar-Jharkhand special area committee include eight plots worth Rs 31.68 lakh, all purchased by accused Pradyuman Sharma between 2010 and 2016, and his house valued at Rs 35.47 lakh. Similarly, value of attached properties owned by co-accused Sandeep Yadav is around Rs 86 lakh, which includes plots in Gaya and Aurangabad, a 2 BHK flat in Smart Residency, Dwarka, and bank deposits.An extra Rs 1.43 crore cash was recovered from CPI (Maoist) leaders and their relatives, including Rs 27.5 lakh from the wife of top CPI(Maoist) leader Arvindji, who died recently in Latehar, Jharkhand. Among the other items seized under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act are two flats in Kolkata, cars/vehicles like Mahindra Scorpio, JCB, Maruti Swift, Jeep and Bolero and gold jewellery.The Maoist leaders have allegedly amassed huge personal wealth by diverting collections made on behalf of CPI (Maoist) from private contractors, mining contractors, transporters, small/medium entrepreneurs and tendu patta contractors. An officer said Maoists often use such ill-gotten money to avail best of education for their children and ensure that their families live in comfort, “while the misled cadres toil away in the jungles in the name of a twisted ideology”.For instance, investigations by ED revealed that Pradyuman Sharma paid Rs 22 lakh as fees for admission of his niece to a private medical college in 2017. His colleague Sandeep Yadav allegedly exchanged Rs 15 lakh cash during the demonetization drive. Also, Yadav’s daughter studied at a reputed private institute while his son is pursuing engineering. Another leader Arvind Yadav was found to have paid Rs 12 lakh as fee for his brother’s engineering course.