The National Investigation Agency on Tuesday conducted searches at eight places in Uttar Pradesh in connection with a case pertaining to the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), The Hindu reported. The raids were carried out in the districts of Prayagraj, Varanasi, Chandauli, Azamgarh and Deoria

In Prayagraj, the home of Seema Azad, national secretary and Uttar Pradesh unit chief of human rights organisation People’s Union for Civil Liberties was among the places searched by the central agency.

The PUCL said that Azad and her husband, Advocate Vishwa Vijay, were interrogated by the National Investigation Agency.

The agency seized a laptop, mobile phones and books from their home, Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar reported. The police stopped Vishwa Vijay when he tried to speak to reporters during the raids.

“The PUCL is outraged that the house of its National Secretary and UP State President, Seema Azad, advocate, author and editor of Dastak, a monthly non-commercial magazine, was raided today,” the human rights organisation said.

It added that the National Investigation Agency’s action was an attempt to stifle the voices of a defender of human rights and democracy.

The agency also raided the office of the Bhagat Singh Students’ Morcha, a students’ organisation active in the Benaras Hindu University, Maktoob Media reported. The organisation’s president and joint secretary were interrogated and their phones were confiscated, according to Campaign Against State Repression, a joint front of 40 civil rights groups.

The rights body said that in Prayagraj, the National Investigation Agency also searched the homes of Ritesh Vidyarthi, convener of a workers’ group and political activist Manish Azad.

The agency has not yet commented on the raids that it carried out on Tuesday.