Twenty-three-year-old youth from Angalakurichi, near Valparai, A. Santhosh Kumar who went missing about a year ago and joined the Maoist movement is still ‘alive’. This is the preliminary information that police got from C. Kannan (46) of Madurai during the four-day custody, which ended on Friday. Kannan was among the five persons, including top Maoist leader Roopesh and his wife Shyna, who were arrested by Coimbatore District Police at Karumathampatty on May 3, 2015. During inquiry by ‘Q’ Branch Police, Kannan is said to have confessed that Santhosh was recruited as a Maoist cadre.
During the same period, rumours spread that Santhosh died of illness. Based on this confession, police altered the case as a kidnap. On June 22, Valparai DSP S. Sakthivel filed a petition in court seeking police custody of Kannan to inquire the whereabouts of Santhosh. It is learnt that during the police custody from June 29 to July 3, Kannan had claimed that Santhosh was still alive. He added that their movement published death of a member on their website alongside the cause of death and how long the person was in the movement.
The police claimed that they seized confidential training materials and literature on Maoist ideologies that were passed on from top leaders of the organisation to new recruits. However, the police said that they have not got any major leads on the whereabouts of Santhosh. They suspect he could be under training in t'he tri-junction forests of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.
The special team is trying to find out details about three others of the total of seven persons booked for helping Santhosh join the movement. The police said that the persons arrested in connection with the case were trying to brainwash three other youth of Angalakurichi to join the movement.
Kannan, who was produced before the Principal District Judge in-charge R. Sakthivel on Friday claimed that the police did not get his signature or seize any items from or through him during his custody. Stating he was not tortured by police, he added that he had not identified any place or person during the course of inquiry.
Kannan was again lodged at the Coimbatore Central Prison in judicial custody till July 10.
