KOCHI: The newly-formed Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Kerala Police, which started functioning here from January end, has received 20 cases for investigation. All the transferred cases are related to Maoist activities in the state in which probe had been pending for several years. In January, the state government had come out with a notification announcing the establishment of the ATS. An ATS police station was then formed near Angamaly here from where the state agency started functioning.
“We have been assigned around 20 cases related to Maoist activities in Kerala and begun a probe into all of them. Some of the cases were previously probed by the Crime Branch and the Internal Security Investigation Team. In some cases, chargesheets were filed,” said an officer with the ATS.The squad also expects to be handed over the probe into the recovery of 14 Pakistan-made bullets from the road at Kulathupuzha in Kollam.
“We expect the case will be handed over to ATS. We have the expertise to investigate it,” the officer said.
The ATS team mostly comprises officers who served with agencies like National Investigation Agency (NIA) and other intelligence agencies on deputation. “Our team is led by a DySP-rank officer who served in the NIA for several years and probed several sensational terrorism cases,” said a source.