Major Breakthrough

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A high-level team of the state police will leave for Tamil Nadu on Tuesday to interrogate Roopesh and other Maoist leaders. Sources told Express that some officers from the state who were part of the joint team of officials of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra had participated in Monday’s interrogation. “We would be able to bring them here for evidence collection only after they are produced in the court. It may take time,” an official said.

The officials coordinating the anti-Maoist operations in the state described Roopesh’s arrest as a major breakthrough. They said the police and the intelligence mechanism coordinated with the southern states to track down the Maoists. Roopesh alias Praveen hails from Peringottukara in Thrissur. He is a coordinator of the South Indian Regional Committee of Maoists, which conducted subversive activities in Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra.

Roopesh, Once CPI(ML) Worker

Roopesh is wanted in around 18 cases in the state including attacks on the forest station at Kunhome in Wayanad, Agraharam resort at Tirunelly, Wayanand, and a stone crusher near Chekyeri colony on the Nedumpoyil-Mananthavadi road.

 Roopesh had worked with the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Peoples’ War Group) before joining the CPI(Maoist) in the State.

 His wife P A Shyna, a former staff of the Kerala High Court, is the commander of the women’s wing of the insurgents. She hails from Valappad in Thrissur.  She went absconding after being booked for sheltering CPI (Maoist) politburo member Malla Raji Reddy  in 2007.