Maoist leader Narayan Sanyal died in Kolkata on Monday night. Sanyal, a senior member of the banned outfit, Communist Party of India (Maoist), was 78 and undergoing treatment for cancer in a south Kolkata hospital, reported Hindustan Times. His last rites will be performed on April 20.

Sanyal was released from jail in 2014 after serving a nine-year term. He was a member of the polit bureau of the CPI(Maoist) at the time of his arrest. He is believed to have played a key role in the the formation of the outfit in 2004.

His was born in the Bogra district of Bengal before it was divided. His family shifted to West Bengal in the 1940s. His father belonged to the Congress party. Sanyal used to work for Union Bank of India before joining the CPI-Marxist-Leninist [ML] in the 1960s.

“With the death of comrade Bijoyda [Narayan Sanyal], the Indian revolution lost one of its most important leaders who was instrumental behind the resurgence of Naxalite politics after the setback of 1972,” said Purnendu Sekhar Mukherjee, who was once a central committee member of the CPI(Maoist).