The National Investigation Agency on Wednesday raided several dalit and human rights activists across seven locations in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh over their alleged links with Maoists.
The central anti-terror body conducted raids in Hyderabad at the residence of V Raghunath, an advocate high court, and activist Chiluka Chandrasekhar. Both of them are members of a human rights organisation named Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee.
In Visakhapatnam, another group of NIA officials cracked down on advocates K Padma and KS Chalam. Searches were also conducted on other members of the same organisation in Kurnool, Kadapa and Rajahmundry.
News18 has accessed the FIR copy in which as many as 64 people, mainly journalists and activists, have been booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and sedition for allegedly helping maoists and funds them to carry out terror activities.
The suspected “urban-naxals” link came to light in November last year after the Andhra Pradesh police arrested a journalist, Pangi Naganna, who allegedly facilitated meetings between maoists and civil society activist, who have been named in the FIR.
During his interrogation, Naganna also revealed that he passed on inside information about police movements to maoist leaders and even instigated villagers to obstruct the cops from entering their area. A book on Maoist literature, wire bundles, mobile phones and press notes were also recovered from Naganna at the time of the arrest.
Sources within the NIA told News18 that they are going to conduct multiple raids in the coming days to crack down on those “working at the behest of Maoists”.