The five have been identified as Sudhen Mahato, Suraj Mandi, Vijay, Sachin and Chandan. Of which, Sushen was a high profile Maoist.

Sushen Mahato
According to intelligence sources, Sushen led the cadres in the Silda camp raid along with Suraj and Vijay. Considered a close aide of Kishenji, Sushen was involved in the attack on Sankrail police station in October, 2009 when the Maoists had killed two policemen and abducted the O-C.

Sushen was a member of the lalgarh squad, which is led by senior commander Vikash.

Intelligence sources said
Sushen had quit the CPM in 2008 after he had a tiff with local party leaders. He then killed Sujit Pandey, a relative of CPM’s Dharampur zonal committee secretary Annuj Pandey, and fled from the area as CPM cadres threatened to kill him.

At the peak of the PCAPA movement against the administration, he joined the CPI-Maoist. Since he was well-trained in handling arms, Sushen was inducted into the Dharampur squad of the Maoists and turned into a “real terror”, said intelligence sources.

“At the beginning, Sushen used to accompany Saota, the leader of the Dharampur squad. After Saota was killed in crossfire, Kishenji promoted Sushen as the leader of the Dharampur squad,” said a senior intelligence officer.

Apart from being involved in Sankrail police station attack, Sushen was also a part of the Maoist team that raided the Gidhni EFR camp in November, 2009 in which four personnel were killed.

Police said Sushen was instrumental in the abduction of two constables — Kanchan Garai and Sabir Mollah — who are still missing. Eight murder cases are pending against him and in the last couple of months, all the killings in Dharampur and Salboni belt have been attributed to him, said police.

Suraj Mandi
A member of the Lalgarh squad, Suraj was the area commander of the Jhargram Maoist committee. The resident of Dahijuri had played a leading role in the hold-up of the Rajdhani Express at Banshtala near Jhargram, said senior police officers.

Sachin and Chandan
The police and intelligence department know little about the duo except that they were armed cadres of the Belpahari squad. “We are yet to get their real identities,” said a senior police officer.