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In a big setback to left-wing extremism, a National Investigation Agency (NIA) court has sentenced as many as 4 Maoists to rigorous imprisonment (RI) who were convicted earlier in the week in connection with a 2014 case relating to assault, threat, and arson against a senior civil police officer of Kerala Police, informed the agency on Friday, April 12.
According to the details shared by the agency, the quantum of punishment awarded by the Ernakulam NIA court to the accused, namely Roopesh, Kanyakumari, Anoop, and Ibrahim, all cadres of the banned Communist Party of India Maoist (CPI Maoist) is different. The court has also imposed fines on the accused.
Among those convicted, accused Roopesh has been awarded 10 years of RI along with a fine of Rs2.35 lakh while the other accused Kanyakumari has been sent to 6 years of RI along with a fine of Rs 1.05 lakhs. Both Kanyakumari and Roopesh were earlier booked and convicted under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
The other two accused, Anoop and Ibrahim who were convicted under UAPA only have been awarded 8 and 6 years of RI along with a fine of Rs 60,000 and Rs 40000 respectively by the court.
All the convicted accused were part of a eight member unlawful squad led by Roopesh, who barged into the house of senior police officer A.B Pramod and trained guns at him while threatening to kill him if he opts to continue his job. The accused had threatened the officer for dire consequences against assisting the anti-Maoist operations before torching his motorcycle on fire in April 2014.
According to the details, the accused at the time of assault were also carrying sophisticated weapons like AK-47 and had also pasted pamphlets on the walls of Pramod’s house before fleeing the spot.
A First Information Report (FIR) pertaining to the incident was initially registered by the Vellamunda police before the NIA re-registered and commenced investigation into the matter in January 2016. One of the named accused in the case, Ajitha alias Anu, was subsequently killed in an exchange of fire while the other two accused, Mahesh alias Jayanna and Sundari, are reported to be absconding, a reward of Rs 10 lakh each has already been announced on both the absconding accused.
The NIA had filed the first chargesheet against the three prime accused in the case, while a supplementary chargesheet against all the accused were subsequently filed in January 2018.
Significantly, the NIA has been investigating a number of prominent cases pertaining to unlawful acts carried out by members of proscribed CPI Maoist across separate States of the country, leading to arrests and convictions to a number of accused lately.
One civilian killed in IED explosion
In another development related to left wing insurgency, a civilian was killed in the Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh after he accidentally stepped onto a pressure-improvised explosive Explosive Device (IED) on Friday, April 12.
According to the details received, the deceased villager has been identified as Munna Bharti, a resident of Chota Dewada under Bakawand police station limits of Jagdalpur. The fateful incident occurred when the deceased, a daily wage worker by profession, accidentally stepped up on a IED planted by the Maoists to cause damage to a ongoing road project between Dumripaalnaar to Hiroli under the Mirtur police station limits.
It must be noted that the Maoists, with the aim to causing damage to the development works, also prohibited combing parties of security personnel in the regions still under their hold, IEDs leading to fatal injuries and spot death to civilians and security personnel.
In a similar IED explosion on Wednesday, April 10 as many as two personnel of the Special Task Force (STF) had also sustained injuries in Itwar village under the Gangloor police station limits of Bijapur itself. The incident unfolded in the wee hours of Wednesday when the personnel were out on a search operation where they accidently came in contact with the IED planted by the Maoist triggering an explosion.
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