NIA chargesheets 20 Maoists for conspiring to carry out terrorist acts, waging war against India

PTI

Ernakulam (Kerala), April 24

The NIA has filed a charge sheet against 20 Maoists before a special court here for their alleged involvement in a conspiracy to strengthen proscribed terrorist organisation CPI (Maoist) with an intention to commit terrorist acts and waging war against the Government of India, an agency spokesperson said on Sunday.

Kalidas of Ramanathapuram, Sreemathi B P of Chikamangaluru, Savithri of Chickamangaluru, S Danish of Coimbatore, Vikram Gowda of Uduppi, Soman of Wayanad, Sharmila of Bijapur, R Ragavendran of Vellore, A Santhosh Kumar of Coimbatore, P Thiruvengadam of Thiruvannamalai, B G Krishnamurthy of Chickamangalur, Rajan of Thrissur, Deepak of Bijapur, Dinesh D H of Coimbatore, Karthik of Theni, Ramesh of Bangaluru, T K Rajeevan of Kannur, Ramesh of Ranippettai, Iyyappan of Virudhunagar, Annesh Babu of Thirunelveli have been charged with various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Arms Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The case relates to the conspiracy for conducting physical and arms training, conducting zonal committee meeting of Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee of CPI (Maoist) in the Nilambur forest in Malappuram district in Kerala in 2016 in order to strengthen the proscribed terrorist organisation with an intention to commit terrorist acts and waging war against the Government of India, the NIA spokesperson said.

The case was initially registered by the Edakkara Police Station in Malappuram in September 2017 and was taken over by the ATS Kerala subsequently. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) re-registered the case in August last year.

The accused, members of the CPI (Maoist), had trespassed into the reserve forests of Nilambur and conspired for conducting training camps, organised meetings of the Zonal Committee of the banned terror outfit, the NIA official said.

They also observed Commemoration Week and celebrated the formation day of CPI (Maoist), collected men and arms, conducted and participated in the arms and physical training by using prohibited arms in order to carry out terrorist acts for furthering the activities of CPI (Maoist), the NIA spokesperson said, adding that further investigation in the case continues.

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