Phd scholar with Maoist links held

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh police claims it has made the biggest Maoist catch since the arrest of Khobad Ghandy last year.

Two top-rung leaders, one of them a PhD scholar from Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University are in custody.

Police said two men, Chintan and Balraj, were among 11 Naxalite leaders arrested in a night raid at Allahabad, Gorakhpur and Kanpur.

Chintan, 64, has PhD degrees from JNU, police say Balraj, 51, is a science graduate. Both were close to Ghandy - the Doon School-educated chartered accountant turned Maoist ideologue who was arrested in September last year in Delhi.