Deepak (30), a suspected Maoist trainer who was arrested by the Special Task Force (STF) of the Tamil Nadu police from a forest near Anaikatti on Saturday, was remanded to judicial custody on Monday.
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Principal District and Sessions Judge, R. Sakthivel, visited Deepak at the prisoners ward of the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) around 1.15 a.m. and issued orders for judicial remand until November 22. He was admitted to CMCH on Saturday evening after he suffered injuries while attempting to escape seeing STF personnel in the forest.
Deepak’s arrest was recorded at the Thadagam police station, as the STF does not have the power to register a case, on Sunday. He was arrested for offences under sections 121 (A) of the Indian Penal Code; 16, 18, 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA); 25 (1)(A) of the Arms Act and 4 of the Explosives Substances Act. As he has been booked under the UAPA, a DSP-ranked officer will investigate the case.
STF personnel picked up Deepak, alias Chandru alias Sinik, during a combing operation in a forest area, Moolagangal near Anaikatti in Coimbatore, not very far from the Kerala border, on Saturday. Two others who were with Deepak in the forest, a man and a woman, had managed to escape.
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When picked up, Deepak allegedly claimed that he was the central committee member of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA), a military component of the CPI (Maoist).
The STF team seized four detonators, 125 g of an explosive mixture, and batteries, from Deepak apart from a single-barrel breech-loading gun, 16 live cartridges and CPI (Maoist) literature.