NIA searches premises of lawyers, activists in Andhra, Telangana over alleged Maoist links

In Andhra, searches were conducted at the premises of V S Krishna, the AP and Telangana Coordination Committee member of Human Rights Forum; Chilika Chandrasekhar, general secretary of Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee; Varalakshmi of Virasam and Revolutionary Writers Association; APCLC president C Babu, advocates K Padma and K Challam; G Pinakapani of Revolutionary Writers’ Association; and Somasekhar Sarma, president of Rayalaseema Vidyavanthula Vedika.

The houses and premises of members or activists with Revolutionary Writers’ Association, Civil Liberties Committee (CLC), Amaraveerula Bandhumitrula Sangham (Association of Friends and Relatives of Martyrs), Praja Kala Mandali (People’s Art Front), Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP), Chaitanya Mahila Sangham (CMS), Patriotic Democratic Movement (PDM) were also searched.

The NIA had also on March 5 taken over the the Munchingput case filed by Andhra Pradesh Police against nearly 80 people under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Last November, police in Munchingput in Visakhapatnam raided the house of a local journalist P Naganna and allegedly seized revolutionary Maoist literature. Claiming he was a courier and informer for the Maoists, police filed an FIR and started an investigation. Based on the alleged confession of Naganna, nearly 80 persons have been named for having links with Maoist outfits.