Seven ‘Maoists’ remanded to ATS custody till January 22

Mumbai: A special Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) court on Tuesday remanded seven alleged members of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) in the Anti-Terrorism Squad’s (ATS) custody till January 22.

The prosecution also informed the court that it had added three sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) dealing with forgery against the accused, as the ATS had recovered multiple PAN and Aadhaar cards from the prime accused and a driving licence from another accused based on forged documents.

Judge M.B. Datye presiding over the special UAPA court on Tuesday remanded all the seven accused — Ajay Datri alias Krushna alias Venugopalan, Satyanarayan Rajaiya Karilla, Narsaiya Lakshmaiya Zumupala, Shankar Lingaiya Gunde, Ravi Rajjana Marampelly, Bapu Shankar Gutaiya and Ramesh Garraiya Golala to ATS custody — saying that the agency needed an adequate opportunity to investigate a serious matter like this.

Chief public prosecutor Lata Chheda argued before the court that the investigation is at initial stage, and the officers have come to know that the accused were planning for something and the police wanted to look into this.

Seeking police custody of the accused, Ms Chheda further argued that during a house search, the police seized literature and books about naxalism and some of the literature is in a language unknown to the officers and hence they have been sent for translation.

She alleged that they were actively involved in promoting their ideology and were targeting youngsters to join their outfit, and banners and posters favouring naxalism had also been recovered from them.