NIA Chargesheets Eight For Supply Of Explosives, Drones To Banned Maoist Outfit In Telangana
New Delhi, December 2 (TNA) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday chargesheeted eight persons for supplying deadly explosives, drones and other equipment to the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) for attacking security forces in the Naxal infested areas of India.
All eight accused are in custody following their arrest under sections 120(B), 143, 147, 148 R/w 149 IPC, section 8 (1)(i TSPS act, section 5 of ES Act, and sections 10, 13, 18, 20 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act-1967. While three of them, working as couriers for the proscribed outfit, were nabbed while on their way to supply the explosives, drones and a Lathe machine, the others were apprehended subsequently.
NIA investigations have revealed that the explosive material recovered from the possession of the three arrested originally, namely Punem Nageswar Rao, Devanuri Mallikarjun Rao and Vollepogula Umashankar, was supplied to them by accused Jannu Koti, Arepalli Srikanth, Tallapalli Arogyam and Bontha Mahender. The latter four had procured the stuff from Sonaboina Kumaraswamy, who held a licence for dealing in explosives.
The cache that the three accused were carrying at the time of their arrest was intended for use in manufacturing of countrymade arms, to be deployed against the security forces in India's Naxal affected areas, as per the NIA investigations.
A detailed probe has further revealed that the courier trio of Punem, Devanuri and Vollepogula had purchased and supplied a drilling machine to the Maoists in March 2023. They had further purchased a Lathe machine in May 2023 for delivering to CPI (Maoist), a Left Wing extremist organisation involved in various terrorist activities with the stated aim of overthrowing the Indian government through a prolonged so-called 'people's war'.
These accused had also purchased a drone for the Maoists in May 2023, intended for spying on the activities of security forces inside the forest. They further received explosive materials, meant to unleash violent attacks on security forces, from their co-accused, to be supplied to the accused underground Maoists.
The cache that the three accused were carrying at the time of their arrest was intended for use in manufacturing of countrymade arms, to be deployed against the security forces in India's Naxal affected areas, as per the NIA investigations.
The case was initially registered at Cherla police station in Telangana on 5th June 2023 and taken over by NIA on 3rd August. The chargesheet filed today names all eight arrested accused u/s 120B, 465 & 471 of IPC, sections 18 & 39 UAPA, and sections 4 & 5 of the Explosive Substances Act. Further investigations to expose and demolish the CPI (Maoist) outfit's nefarious anti-India designs are underway, an official said.