It has been learned that at least 20 pages of handwritten accounts, spanning several years, were recovered after the encounter in the jungles of Abhujmaad in Narayanpur district on November 7 in which six Maoists were reported to have been killed, according to report. A postscript in the ‘balance sheet’, maintained by the Nelnar area janatana sarkar (“local government”), for 2017 states: “Note bandi ke dauran 2 lakh jama kiya manta (Deposited 2 lakh during note ban).” While the year’s total expenditure has been put at Rs 46,720, there is a line which says that a sewing machine worth Rs 16,000 was damaged during an attack by security forces, D M Awasthi, Special Director General, Anti-Naxal Operations, Chhattisgarh.
Aftermath of demonetisation move on November 8, 2016, the Narendra Modi government had claimed that note ban affected the Maoists. However, documents recovered from the site of an encounter in Abhujmaad on November 7 showed that they successfully exchanged demonetized Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes adding up to Rs 2 lakh, according to Indian Express report.
The handwritten ‘balance sheets’, for 2013 to 2017, include sub-heads like expenditure incurred by the “Vikas shakha”, “Raksha shakha”, “school Sanskriti shakha”, “Jan sampark shakha” and so on. There are separate pages on expenditure incurred on “community infrastructure”, such as the building of wells and small check dams as well. “It is true that Maoist groups would have exchanged some amount of the demonetised cash. They could have used villagers, forcing them to deposit cash in their bank accounts, as also contractors who they levy taxes from. After demonetisation, we had to deal with the situation sensitively and did not make any arrests. But we did have information on certain bank accounts, details of which were given to the authorities concerned, and some money was seized as well,” he said.
Earlier this year, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said the Maoist problem continues to be a matter of concern for internal security and the menace has badly hit 35 districts in seven states. Singh said the Maoist scenario remains an area of concern for the internal security of the country even though it has exhibited a significant improvement over the years. He said 106 districts in 10 states were affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE) and 35 districts were identified as most affected in seven states. The home minister had said the Maoist scenario has been showing a declining trend in the last three years.
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