A sibling of ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi party MLA and a TV journalist were among the six persons arrested by the police in Siddipet on Monday, after seizing four firearms and 58 live rounds from them.
Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate (PETN), a high explosive chemical, weighing 250 grams, was also recovered from them. "The firearms, along with the high explosive, were procured by the CPI-Maoists through some of the arrested persons who were their couriers," Siddipet Police Commissioner, V. Siva Kumar, told The Hindu.
However, police were yet to ascertain who the CPI-Maoists wanted to target. On learning that a person attempted to extort money from a businessman in Siddipet at gunpoint, police began picking up suspects a few days ago.
Repaka Swamy, 30, one of the detained persons, turned out to be a courier of CPI-Maoists. He was brother of Repaka Ilaiah, a Maoist who was killed in an exchange of fire with the police in Siddipet district 13 years ago.
Swamy 'used to meet Maoists clandestinely' now and then after his brother's death. In 2013, Swamy, accompanied by a courier, met leaders of CPI-Maoist Andhra Orissa Border Special Zonal Committee (AOBSZC) and discussed about recruiting the cadre in Telangana.
While returning, he was given ₹80,000 and memory cards containing revolutionary songs. He was told that a person called Raghu would hand over some firearms to him. A few days after returning from AOB, Raghu rang up him. They met at Turkapally on Hyderabad outskirts where Raghu gave him two pistols with 39 live rounds, having collected ₹80,000.
During investigation, the police found that Raghu was associated with balladeer Gaddar (a long-time Maoist ideologue but disowned by Maoists now) and others. "His original name is B. Narsimha Chary. He is working as reporter for a local TV news channel at Suryapet now. He was arrested twice earlier," Mr. Siva Kumar said.
In 2010, he was held for putting up Maoist banners in Alair and Bhongir (then in Nalgonda district). He was again arrested by the Nalgonda district police on charge of possessing firearms in November, 2016.
Through a tailor Ranjith, who hailed from Uttar Pradesh and lived on Hyderabad outskirts, Raghu allegedly procured five pistols and two revolvers. "At the instance of Maoist leaders, he handed over two to Swamy, one each to G. Venkatesh, Vemula Ramchander and Mahesh," the Commissioner said.
Mahesh, said to be a Maoist, was yet to be identified. He gave one firearm to his uncle Balaiah who claimed to have thrown it into Musi river. Another one was recovered from him by the Nalgonda district police. He didn't confess to Nalgonda police about the other weapons then.
Based on Swamy's confession, the Siddipet police picked up Raghu who revealed about distribution of the firearms. Acting on his inputs, they arrested Maoist sympathisers Balanarsu and G. Venkatesh, V. Ramchander, brother of TRS MLA Vemula Veeresham of Nakrekal in Nalgonda and Ranjith.
