Coimbatore District and Principal Sessions Court judge R. Sakthivel on Wednesday granted custody of suspected Maoist Srimathi alias Shoba to the ‘Q’ Branch of the Tamil Nadu police for eight days.
The Q Branch had sought custody of the suspected Maoist for 10 days.
Shoba, who is facing three cases against her in Kerala and nine cases in Karnataka, was arrested by the Q Branch from a check post near Anaikatti on Tamil Nadu – Kerala border on March 11. Shoba was represented by advocates Muhammed Aboobecker and S. Sathyabalan.
A native of Chikkamagaluru in Karnataka, Shoba was attached to Bhavai Dalam of the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
According to Kerala police, Shoba was present in the forest near Agali in Palakkad when its anti-Naxal squad Thunderbolt had an exchange of fire with a group of Maoists on October 28 and 29. Four Maoists namely Manivasagam, Karthi, Rema and Aravind were killed while a few others including Shoba managed to escape. She was said to have suffered a bullet wound in thigh in the encounter.
