Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy produced in local court

Tribune News Service

Patiala, May 19 

Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy, who was booked by the Patiala police in 2012 for allegedly delivering a lecture promoting the Maoist ideology at Punjabi University, Patiala, under a fake identity, was produced before a local court today. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for May 27.

An FIR was registered against 66-year-old Ghandy and another person, Manoj, alias Rajesh, at the sadar police station, Patiala, under Sections 10, 13, 18 & 20 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and Sections 419 and 120-B of the IPC in the case. 

Ghandy, a politburo member of the banned CPI (Maoist), was arrested in September, 2009, in Delhi following a joint operation by intelligence agencies and the police. Since then he is behind bars.

Later, his bail plea was rejected by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Ghandy had pleaded innocence on the grounds that he was booked by the police for promoting the Maoist ideology at Punjabi University in April 2009 but at that time the CPI (Maoist) was not banned. The CPI (Maoist) was banned on June 22, 2009, he argued.