MUMBAI/THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: :The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Saturday arrested veteran Maoist leader Ajith,62, alias K Muralidharan alias Thomas Joseph from a hospital in Talegaon-Dabhade, around 30 km from Pune, along with his aide Ismail Hamaza Chiragpilli, 29, alias Pravin alias James Mathew. They were produced before Additional Sessions Judge S V Mane who remanded them in police custody for seven days. The police maintained that Ajith is a close aide of top Maoist leader Ganapathy. He and Ismail were residing in Talegaon-Dabhade under false identities. “We arrested them after receiving a tipoff from a source. They belong to the banned CPI (Maoist),” said Bhanupratap Barge, senior inspector of the Pune ATS unit.
The state police will take them into custody only after the details of the cases registered against them in the state are taken. “We need to hold discussions with our counterparts in Maharashtra before taking them into custody. At the moment, we have not finalised anything. “Prima facie, key accused Muralidharan has no direct involvement in the Maoist attacks in the state recently. Hence, no cases have been charged against him. But we need to verify whether any cases had been registered against him. Details can’t be divulged right now,’’ ADGP (Intelligence) A Hemachandran said. Terming the arrests as a major setback to the Maosists, He said the two leaders landed in the police net following the sustained and coordinated efforts of the state police. Murali is a graduate from the Regional College of Engineering, Kozhikode. The son of reputed administrator Kannambally Karunakara Menon, he was accused of a police station attack case in 1976 at Kayanna, near Kozhikode. Murali had been the final word for Maoist activities in the state. Literature in favour of Maoists was written by Murali under the pseudonym ‘Ajith.’