HC confirms detention of 5 suspected Maoists under NSA

The Madras High Court has confirmed the detention of five suspected Maoists, including a 42-year-old woman, under the National Security Act (NSA) on charges of furthering terror activities and running a politico-military campaign in bordering districts of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, known as tri-junction area.

Justices S. Nagamuthu and V. Bharathidasan dismissed habeas corpus petitions filed by R. Roopesh alias Prasanth alias Praveen alias Prakash alias Ruban alias Kariyan (45) belonging to the Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee of Communist Party of India (Maoists) and his wife Shyna alias Shyni alias Shoba alias Rajee (42) of the Kerala State Committee.

Passing common orders on three other petitions too, the judges confirmed the detention of S. Kannan alias Senthil alias Kumar alias Minnal (46), C. Veeramani alias Natraj alias Sunilkumar alias Sara alias Eswar alias Vajramani alias Riswan (60), both belonging to the Western Ghats committee, and Anup Mathew George (32) of the Kerala State Committee.

The judges pointed out that the CPI (Maoist) had been declared as a banned organisation under Section 35(1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 following a notification issued by the Centre on June 22, 2009 and nowhere in the grounds raised in their habeas corpus petitions had any of the five petitioners denied being members of the organisation.

Further, sleuths from the ‘Q’ branch CID had accused the petitioners of raising Tamil slogans meaning, “Up up Maoism, down down police atrocities! Success for people’s war! Success for armed struggle against the Government! Armed struggle alone is the only way out for the people’s power!” when they were arrested at a bakery in Karumathampatti in Coimbatore on May 4 last.

“Thus, prima facie, it is crystal clear that they are members of the said organisation,” the Division Bench said and pointed out that the petitioners were also accused of grave charges of playing a part in the politico-military campaign conducted in the tri-junction area between December 2014 and March 2015 in view of the 10th anniversary of the formation of CPI (Maoist).

The administrative office of a gelatin company at Ernakulam, a tourist home at Thirunelli of Wayanad district, a forest office at Attapadi of Palakkad district, a check post of Forest Department at Kunjam of Wayanad, two restaurants of popular American franchisers at Palakkad, a quarry office at Chekkery in Kannur district were attacked as part of the campaign.

Members of the CPI (Maoist) also launched an attack on Thunderbolt, a special police force of Kerala, and for the purposes of these attacks, they had formed armed squads in the forests at the tri-junction area. The armed squad threatened tribals to part with rice, vegetables and other eatables and formed a red corridor in the forest by mobilising the tribals, the police alleged.

Hence, the ‘Q’ branch lodged the petitioners in Coimbatore Central Prison, recommended their detention under the NSA and obtained favourable orders from the Coimbatore Collector on July 16 last which had been put under challenge in the present batch of habeas corpus petitions.