NIA raids 31 locations in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana; six held

Case relates to alleged Maoist links of civil rights activists, lawyers; incriminating documents, Rs 10 L in cash seized
NIA officers conducting searches at a house in Prakasam district | Express
NIA officers conducting searches at a house in Prakasam district | Express

VIJAYAWADA/ HYDERABAD: The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which conducted raids on the houses of several civil rights activists, lawyers and journalists at 31 locations in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, said it had arrested six persons so far in the case related to the furthering the activities of the banned CPI (Maoist) in the guise of frontal organisations. The NIA said it conducted searches at 31 locations spread across eight districts of Andhra Pradesh — Visakhapatnam, Guntur, Prakasam, Srikakulam, Kurnool, Krishna, East Godavari and Kadapa — and four districts in Telangana. 

The case was originally registered by Munchingput police of Visakhapatnam (Rural) after they nabbed Pangi Naganna in November, 2020. Investigation revealed that Naganna had been ostensibly working as a journalist and passing information about the movements of police to Maoists. He had allegedly indulged in instigating the villagers to obstruct combing operations of police and prevent them from entering into villages, besides motivating people to revolt against the police and hold rallies against the government. 

The NIA re-registered the case on March 7, 2021 and took up investigation. It had arrested Anduluri Annapurna, Jangarla Koteswar Rao, Manukonda Srinivasa Rao, Rela Rajeswari  and Boppudi Anjamma apart from Naganna.The NIA said it had seized 40 mobile phones, 44 SIM cards, 70 storage devices like hard discs, micro SD cards and flash cards, 184 CDs/DVDs, 19 pen drives, tab, audio recorder, `10 lakh from one accused, apart from sickles, axe, machetes, Maoist flags as well as a huge number of incriminating documents, handwritten Maoist literature, press notes and others.

In Telangana, searches were carried out at seven locations in Ranga Reddy, Hyderabad, Medchal-Malkajgiri and Medak districts. Meanwhile, the NIA conducted searches at Alakurapadu and M Nidamanuru villages in Prakasam district on Wednesday and Thursday. In these searches, the NIA seized cell phones, some books and papers from the residences of former Maoist leader Padma, who is the wife of top Maoist leader Ramakrishna alias RK. Padma, after her surrender, has been living at Alakurapadu.

The NIA sleuths also conducted searches at the residence of Virasam member G Kalyan Rao, who is also residing in the same village. They also collected information from relatives and friends of Mannam Prasad, a bank employee, who was murdered earlier. On Thursday morning, the NIA sleuths reached Padma’s residence and left the place after sometime. Police bandobast was arranged and no mediapersons were allowed into the village. Padma and Kalayan Rao said the NIA sleuths came to their residences on Wednesday night and enquired about their links with the Maoists. Senior advocate and All India Lawyers Association president Muppalla Subbarao strongly condemned the NIA raid and demanded that the arrest of civil liberties leaders be stopped.  

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