The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested 41-year-old Nalamasa Krishna, a resident of Hyderabad and Vice-President of the Telangana Praja Front (TPF) on Sunday, alleging that he played a 'key role' in furthering the activities of CPI (Maoist).
The case, originally registered last October at the Nallakunta police station in Hyderabad, was based on seizure of documents and material allegedly recovered from the residence of Maddileti alias Bandari Maddileti, president of the Telangana Vidyarthi Vedika (TVV). The case was subsequently re-registered by the NIA.
"The investigation revealed that Krishna regularly visited top CPI (Maoist) leaders in Chhattisgarh forests and passed on their directions to Maddileti. He was also instrumental in directing the frontal organisations, like TPF and TVV, to take up various activities as per the CPI (Maoist) strategy," said the agency in a statement.
The agency said that it is probing various angles and the investigation is in progress.
In May this year, Osmania University Professor C Kasim who was arrested in January for his alleged links for Maoists, was released from the Cherlapally jail on conditional bail after spending nearly four months in prison.
The professor was booked for sedition (Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code) and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). He was given bail by the Rangareddy district court.
Several human rights activists in Telangana have condemned the arrests made by the NIA, with the help of the state police, including members of Virasam and the Civil Liberties Committee (CLC).
They have protested alleged high-handedness of the police and dubbed this as a clampdown on dissent. They also said that the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government was cracking down on human rights activists, for raising several issues in the state.
Multiple petitions have also been filed in the Telangana High Court challenging the validity of the cases that have been booked and the arrests that have been made.
With IANS and PTI inputs