NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday said it had conducted searches at multiple locations in Telangana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala in connection with a case involving a top CPI (Maoist) leader who was arrested by Telangana Police in Hyderabad in September 2023.
In an official statement the NIA said, the agency teams raided premises of accused and suspects at a total of six locations – two in Hyderabad, and one each in Thane, Chennai, Mallapuram and Pallakad this morning.
The agency conducted extensive searches, leading to the seizure of incriminating documents and books related to the proscribed CPI (Maoist) outfit. Six mobile phones with SIM cards and Rs 1,37,210 cash was also seized, the official said, the statement said.
The case was originally registered by Cyberabad Police in Telangana following the arrest of Sanjay Deepak Rao, a Central Committee Member of CPI (Maoist) in September 2023.
The police had at the time seized a revolver with live rounds apart from forged Aadhaar cards, cash of Rs 47,280 and other materials from his possession.
The NIA, which took over the case in January 2024, found during investigations that Sanjay Deepak Rao was actively working for the banned Naxal organisation in the tri-junction area of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka,
“Under his direction, other frontline members of CPI (Maoist) were operating in the urban areas of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala to promote the activities of the outfit,” the NIA alleged.