Udupi: Naxal leaders sent to 12-day police custody

UDUPI: Naxal leaders BG Krishnamurthy and Savithri of the proscribed CPI (Maoist), who were in judicial custody, were brought before a court in Karkala on Wednesday in connection with pending investigation into cases filed against them at Karkala rural, Hebri and Ajekar police stations, and they were sent to police custody for 12 days for questioning.

A senior officer said that the accused were sent to police custody in connection with 13 cases against them in three police stations of Karkala sub-division of Udupi. In November last year, the Naxal duo Krishnamurthy and Savithri were arrested and were later moved to Viyyur central prison in Thrissur, sources said. The are charged with spreading Maoist ideology, possession of weapons, weapon training and unlawful assembly to launch an armed agitation.

Krishnamurthy, known as BGK among Maoists, is from Sringeri and was reportedly the secretary of the Maoists’ Western Ghats special zonal committee. Savithri is from Kalasa and was associated with Kabani Dalam. Naxal activities in the region had made a mark earlier in Udupi district. Bhoja Shetty and his neighbor Suresh Shetty were murdered near Seethanadi in Hebri, Udupi district, on May 15, 2008, a day before the election was scheduled. The naxals suspected Bhoja Shetty, a teacher by profession to be a police informer and gunned him down near Nadpalu, Hebri.