MANANTHAVADY: Newly joined Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) (North Division) Nitin Agarwal convened a meeting of top police officials in the district and reportedly issued direction to beef up surveillance programmes in the backdrop of the recent Maoist sightings near Thirunelli.Nitin Agarwal joined as the ADGP north division in the last week. All DySPs CIs in the district attended the urgent meeting convened by ADGP on Saturday at Mananthavady DySP office.
Police were under the assumption that Maoist activities were on the decline in the district following the arrest of Roopesh in Coimbatore. However, a five-member group of ultras appeared publicly near Thirunelli before local body elections held earlier this month. The group had exhorted the public to boycott elections, pasted posters and distributed pamphlets.
To avoid creating panic among the public, police did not adopt conspicuous search operations for Maoists. Even the name of high security polling booths were not revealed to the public to ensure participation of the people in the polling process. However, the meeting has reportedly decided to implement rigorous measures to intercept the rebel outfit.
However, top officials in the department remained tightlipped when asked about the details of the meeting. “He came to meet officials. It was not related to Maoism,” said Mananthavady DySP A R Premkumar.