New Delhi/Ranchi, July 18: The NIA on Wednesday said it has arrested a member of a banned Maoist organisation during its ongoing probe into seizure of over 1,100 Aadhaar cards and arms in March.

A National Investigation Agency spokesperson in Delhi said that the central agency has arrested Jharilal Mahto, a member of the Communist Party of India-Maoist from Gujarat's Vadodara on Monday.

"Mahto has been involved in the laundering of money of top leaders and operatives of the group," he said. The CPI-Maoist member was produced before a Special NIA court in Jharkhand's Ranchi on Tuesday which sent him to police custody for eight days.

According to the counter-terror probe agency official, Mahto from Jharkhand's Giridih is one of the named accused in the case.  The agency's action comes in the wake of the case it registered on May 9, on the basis of the case registered by the Jharkhand Police on March 6 in Dumri police station.

On May 29, the agency seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition from Jharkhand's Bokaro.  Earlier, the Jharkhand Police had arrested 15 armed Maoist cadres, including functionaries of CPI-Maoist from Dumri in Giridih and recovered 12 other weapons including AK-47, Insas, SLR and .303 rifles from them.

It said 60 ATM (SBI) cards, 199 letters of thanks issued by the Allahabad Bank for opening accounts and 1,125 Aadhaar cards were also recovered during the operation.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 18, 2018 02:50 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).