Mavelikkara Maoist Trial

Toby Hutony

The conviction of former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba by the Sessions Court in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, is likely to aid the Mavelikkara Maoist case. Based on this, the National Investigative Agency (NIA) that probed the Mavelikkara Maoist case will be able to bolster evidence for its ongoing trial at the NIA court in Kochi. Saibaba's conviction will help NIA prove the Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF) is a front organisation of the CPI(Maoist)—34th in the list of banned organisations.

NIA has found the members of RDF, accused of holding a secret meeting at Mavelikkara, were attempting to form a youth and student front of the organisation in Kerala. 'We have been contending ever since we took over the Mavelikkara case the RDF is a frontal organisation for CPI (Maoist). RDF's manifesto was the sarme as that of CPI (Maoist)," an NIA officer told 'Express'. Saibaba's conviction will help the NIA prove the accused persons were members of a banned group as the former DU professor too had links with the RDF.

"Saibaba does not have any direct involvement in the Mavelikkara case. However, some of the evidence submitted by the Maharashtra Police at Gadchiroli court was used in the Mavelikkara Maoist case as well," the officer said.

Maharashtra Police had recovered a laptop, computer hard disc drives and pen drives from Saibaba's residence in New Delhi. From the digital evidence recovered by the Maharashtra Police, NIA found Ajaya Kumar alias Ajayan Manoor, an accused in the Mavelikkara case, had attended the first RDF national conference in Hyderabad on April 22 and 23, 2012, along with Saibaba. NIA has received copies of the digital evidence from the Maharashtra police with permission from the court. When the evidence was screened at C-DAC Thiruvananthapuram, it was found all activities of RDF were directed towards furthering the objectives and intentions of CPI(Maoist).

The draft RDF manifesto contains highly seditious material instigating cession/secession of the territory of India from the Indian Union. The RDF draft manifesto retrieved from the hard discs of Saibaba, from Ajayan's residence, seized from Cherry Printers, Manoor, and from the bag of Rajesh Madhavan (another accused from Kerala) are similar.

A protected witness in Mavelikkara Maoist case also confessed to NIA that RDF was a cover organisation for CPI (Maoist).

The Central Committee of CPI (Maoist) directly looks after the affairs of RDF. Trial in the Mavelikkara Maoist case is entering its final stage, with the last hearing slated for March 14.

P G Manu, NIA Special Prosecutor appears for the prosecution. Rajesh of Mavelikkara, Bahuleyan of Njarayil-konam, Devarajan of Kollam, Gopal—a scientist with the Indira Gandhi Centre of Atomic Research at Kalpakkam—of Rajilpakkom in Tamil Nadu, and Manoor Ajayan are the accused in the case. They were arrested after police raided a meeting at the Cherumadom lodge in Mavelikkara on December 29, 2012.

[Source : Express News Service, March 13, 2017]

Frontier
Vol. 49, No.40, April 9 - 15, 2017