The CRPF has been the primary targets for the Red terrorists

Union ministry of home affairs has formed multi-disciplinary groups which has officers from central agencies

After reducing the size of Red corridor space, the Centre has now formed multi-disciplinary groups to check funding of Naxalites, which is unofficially estimated to be over Rs 125 crore annually.

The Union ministry of home affairs has formed multi-disciplinary groups which has officers from central agencies, including from the IB, NIA, CBI, ED and DRI, and state police. A process has also been initiated to create a separate vertical in the NIA for investigating important cases relating to Left Wing Extremism (LWE), said a senior MHA officer aware of anti-Naxal operations.

These are some of the several measures, said the ministry officer, which have been initiated by the MHA to choke the financial lifeline to left wing extremists and ensure confiscation of properties of the banned outfit leaders.

The ministry claims that coordinated effort by the central agencies and state police has started to show results, and investigators have tracked down payments made by Maoist leaders. Pradyuman Sharma, a member of the Bihar-Jharkhand special area committee of the CPI (Maoists), paid Rs 22 lakh as admission fees for his niece in a private medical college last year, the ministry stated.

Similarly, another member of the CPI (Maoists) Sandeep Yadav gave Rs 15 lakh as exchange during the demonetisation days, said officials familiar with the matter. His daughter and sons are studying in reputed private institutions.

Another senior leader -- Arvind Yadav -- paid Rs 12 lakh towards fees for his brother to study in a private engineering college, said ministry sources. This, pointed out the ministry officials, exposed the real character of the Naxal leadership.

The money extorted through levy from private contractors, including those who execute government works, mining, small and medium industries and transporters are siphoned off for personal use, which is contrary to the ideology they portray to win over gullible villagers and tribals.

"A large part of the money collected is also diverted towards wealth of its leaders whose children avail of the best education and families live in comfort while the misled cadres toil away in the jungles in the name of twisted ideology," said ministry sources.

PV Ramana, an expert on Naxal and research fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis, recently wrote in an article that the annual country-wide collection of Maoists ranges somewhere between Rs 125 and Rs 140 crore.

He said the figure which was provided to him by reliable official sources from Andhra Pradesh was also corroborated by information obtained from interrogation of Akhileshji, alias Masterji, a central committee member of the CPI-Maoist arrested in 2012 from Bihar.