The Ernakulam Additional District and Sessions Court on Wednesday sent Roopesh and his wife Shyna, alleged Maoist operatives, to judicial custody till June 10.
Judge M. Nandakumar posted a petition by the Internal Security Investigation team of the Kerala police seeking their custody till Friday. The couple were later shifted to the district jail at Kakkanad.
Before being shifted to the jail, the court permitted the couple to have a brief interaction with their daughters T.R. Ami and T.R. Savera in its presence.
Earlier, Roopesh and Shyna were brought to Kochi from the Coimbatore central prison by road. The police bus in which the couple was brought was accompanied by convoy carrying commando and armed policemen. A large posse of policemen were deployed on the court premises. As the police vehicle carrying the couple reached here from about 3 p.m., a group of activists under the aegis of the Njattuvela Cultutral Forum, raised slogans declaring solidarity with them.
Roopesh, who consistently raised slogans in support of the Naxalbari, rights of tribals, and residents of Kathikkudam, was the first to be taken into the court. A few minutes later, Shyna also got off the vehicle, who later told media persons that the police had attempted to kill them at least twice while in custody.
The couple was produced in the court on the basis of a production warrant issued in connection with a case for arranging a house on rent for Maoist central committee member Malla Raja Reddy and wife Beecha Suganna at Kanjirakkadu, near Perumbavoor, in 2007. After the arrest of Malla Raja Reddy and wife by the Andhra police, Roopesh and Shyna allegedly broke into the house and destroyed several crucial documents including a computer.
