NIA searches 31 locations in Andhra, Telangana

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) carried out searches at 31 locations in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in connection with its probe into the Munchingput Maoist case and recovered cash to the tune of Rs 10 lakh and several other incriminating documents.

The NIA team seized 40 mobile phones, 44 SIM cards, 70 storage devices like hard discs, micro SD cards and flash cards, 184 CDs or DVDs, 19 pen drives, tab, audio recorder, Rs 10 lakhs in cash from one accused, sickles, axe, machetes besides CPI (Maoist) flags, as well as huge number of incriminating documents, handwritten letters of CPI(Maoist) party literature, CPI(Maoist) press notes etc, an NIA spokesperson here said.

The searches were spread across eight districts of Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam, Guntur, Prakasam, Srikakulam, Kurnool, Krishna, East Godavari and Kadapa and four districts of Telangana -- Ranga Reddy, Hyderabad, Medchal-Malkajgiri and Medak.

The case relates to furthering the activities of the proscribed organisation, CPI (Maoist) in Andhra Pradesh in the guise of frontal organisations. So far six people have been arrested in the case.

The official said that the case was originally registered on November 23 last year by Visakhapatnam Police and was re-registered by NIA on March 7 this year.

The case pertains to seizure of revolutionary literature of CPI (Maoist) and explosives substances from accused Pangi Naganna, who worked as a journalist. Naganna was intercepted by Munchingput Police in Visakhapatnam Rural during vehicle checking.

During probe it was revealed that Naganna was passing information about the police movements to the leaders of CPI(Maoist) and has also been involved in instigating the villagers to obstruct combing operations of police and prevent them from entering into the villages, besides motivating the villagers to revolt against the police parties and hold rallies against the government.

The official said that besides Naganna five more persons have been arrested in the case. The NIA has arrested Anduluri Annapurna, Jangarla Koteswar Rao, Manukonda Srinivasa Rao, Rela Rajeswari and Boppudi Anjamma.