The National Investigation Agency has conducted searches at 31 locations in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to advance the activities of the banned CPI (Maoist), an official said Thursday.
The searches were carried out in Visakhapatnam, Guntur, Prakasam, Srikakulam, Kurnool, Krishna, East Godavari and Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh and in Ranga Reddy, Hyderabad, Medchal-Malkajgiri and Medak in Telangana.
The case relates to the promotion of the activities of the banned CPI (Maoist) in Andhra Pradesh under the guise of frontal organizations, the official said.
The case was originally registered in the Visakhapatnam (rural) district in November 2020 and re-registered by the NIA in March.
The case concerns the seizure of revolutionary literature from CPI (Maoist), press releases, medicines, wire bundles and explosive substances from Pangi Naganna who was intercepted by police in Visakhapatnam Rural while the vehicle was being checked.
Naganna allegedly worked as a journalist and passed information on the police movements to the leaders of the CPI (Maoists).
He was also involved in allegedly persuading villagers to obstruct police combing operations and prevent them from entering villages, and to encourage villagers to revolt against police parties and rallies against the government.
So far, six defendants – Naganna, Anduluri Annapurna, Jangarla Koteswar Rao, Manukonda Srinivasa Rao, Rela Rajeswari and Boppudi Anjamma – have been arrested in the case.
During the search, 40 cell phones, 44 SIM cards, 70 storage devices such as hard drives, micro SD cards and flash cards, 184 CDs / DVDs, 19 USB sticks, tabs, audio recorders, 10 pounds in cash from an accused, sickles , Ax, machetes next to CPI flags (Maoist) as well as a large number of incriminating documents, handwritten letters from Maoist party literature and CPI press releases (Maoist) were restored.
Four interviewed
The NIA on Thursday interviewed at least four people in Visakhapatnam whose homes they had raided on Wednesday.
The raids continued until the early hours of the morning on Thursday and it became known that some documents identifying suspected encounters, press releases and other documents, computer hard drives, and external hard drives and cell phones had been seized for examination.
The raids were carried out on the homes of Chalam from All People’s Lawyer Association, VS Krishna from HRF, Padma from CRPC, and Sreeramurthy and Balakrishna from APCLC.
It is learned that Mr Krishna, Mr Balakrishna, Mr Chalam and Mr Sreeramurthy were asked to present themselves to NIA investigators at their camp office on Thursday. Both Mr. Krishna and Mr. Balakrishna were also asked to be present on Friday.
The raids were carried out in the context of the Munchingput and Pidigurala cases taken over by the NIA.
In the Munchingput and Pidigurala cases, Naganna and Chaitanya were arrested, and both had named over 60 people who allegedly have connections with the CPI (Maoist). FIRs have been filed against all under the UAPA.
Nine people have already been arrested, including Naganna, Chaitanya, Andaluri Annapoorna and a few others.
The NIA raided the homes of almost all 64 people in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on Wednesday whose names were mentioned in the Munchingput and Pidigurala cases. It is known that no new arrests were made after the recent raids, but that they were called for questioning.
Huge seizures
NIA investigators reportedly confiscated several electronic devices, Maoist flags, letters and other materials. The officers confiscated 40 cell phones, 44 SIM cards, 70 storage devices such as hard drives, micro SD cards, 184 CDs and DVDs, 19 USB sticks, a tab, an audio recorder, Maoist flags, party literature and £ 10 in cash from the defendant.
(With contributions from our Vijayawada employee)