City police to take strong action against Ferreira supporters
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
The city police have decided to take a stern stand against those who try to take strong exception to the arrest of four Naxalites and sympathise with Mumbai-based Maoist Arun Ferreira, asserted police commissioner, SPS Yadav.
Reacting to the statement of Ferreira's Mumbai "friends", who are coming in Nagpur on Wednesday to ascertain the reasons for his arrest, Yadav said that prima facie evidences have established that Ferreira was a hardcore Naxalite and was very close to the CPI (Maoist) top brasses.
The Mumbai-based friends of Ferreira said that he was innocent and were quite apprehensive about his police safety. Some of his St Xavier's days friends, are coming in Nagpur on Wednesday and are likely to brief a vast cross-section of people about the incident.
In a major breakthrough, the Nagpur police arrested four Naxalites, include Ferreira and top extremist, Murali Sattya Reddy on May 8 at Deekshabhoomi. While Murali was one of the top leaders in Naxalite hierarchy, Ferreira was a communications and propaganda strategy expert. "We have enough evidences that show that Ferreira is a hardcore Naxalite. During our investigations we learnt that he and Murali, a divisional secretary of the Naxalite group, were staying together in the city. If he was innocent why did he throw a pen-drive and diary when the police reached the spot and were trying to arrest them on May 8?" Yadav asked and informed that the pen-drive contained several revealing information, including minutes of secret meetings of Naxalites' organisation and its strategies.
Moreover, police seized a 9mm Chinese-made pistol, two magazines, 16 rounds of ammunition, two VCDs, an MP3 CD, a notepad containing information on manufacture of improvised explosive devices and use of walkie-talkies from them. "Can a simple person carry such materials? How can they justify their acts?" he further asked. Yadav continued, "he might be a bright and sobre student during his college days. But that does not mean that he is still carrying his past. It is utter shamelessness to defend persons associated with a banned organisation like the CPI (Maoist)," a furious CP said.
According to the city police super, Ferreira is close to Vishnu, the chief of the Maharashtra unit of CPI (Maoist). Ferreira and his three associates were booked under 10, 13 and 20 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
Meanwhile, the committee for the protection of democratic rights (CPDR) filed a writ petition before the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on Tuesday against the police torture of four alleged Naxalites, including Ferreira.
While filing the petition, it said that the JMFC Court in Nagpur did not take any cognizance of these accused, who pointed out before the court the torture by the police during "interrogation". The petitioner also raised the issue of safety and security of these accused. The court served notices to the state home department and local police to file their replies by June 6 next.
Talking to Hindustan Times, Surendra Gadling, the counselor of Ferreira said that they would oppose the police move for narco-analysis test and braining-mapping in the court on Wednesday.
Hindustan Times
Labels: Maharashtra, NEWS
posted by Resistance 5/16/2007 01:20:00 PM,
