Four Maoists – Rupesh, Kanya, Shyam, and Babu – accused in the Vellamunda Maoist case have been convicted by the Special Court for National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Kochi on April 9 (Tuesday).
K. Kamanees, the Special Judge, convicted the first accused Rupesh on charges of committing a terrorist act, conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, being a member of a terrorist organisation, and for supporting a terrorist organisation, all scheduled offences under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
The court also found him guilty of offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including conspiracy, unlawful assembly, rioting and house trespass.
The court had found similar offences proved against Kanya, the second accused, under the UAPA and the IPC.
However, Shyam and Babu, the seventh and the eighth accused, were convicted for being members of the terrorist organisation and giving support for a terrorist organisation as defined under the UAPA.
The trial in the case lasted for two and a half years. The court had examined 104 witnesses, including six protected witnesses. The examination of the protected witnesses was held at Mananthavady. A police inspector was examined at the Coimbatore District Court as he was unable to travel to Kochi to give evidence due to poor health.
The prosecution case was that the activists of the proscribed terror organisation, Communist Party of India (Maoist), trespassed on the house of a policeman, A.B. Pramod, trained guns at him and terrorised him and his family members and threatened them of the dire consequence of death on April 24, 2014 at Vellamunda in Wayanad in Kerala.
The other accused, Jayanna and Sundari, are absconding, while Ajitha, the second accused, has passed away. She was killed in an exchange of fire with police at Manjakandi at Agali on October 28, 2019. The sixth accused, Rajeesh, had turned approver in the case.
The prosecution had alleged that Rupesh was armed with an AK-47 rifle and others with full self-loading rifles. Rupesh threatened the policeman point blank, with the rifle pointed to the belly of the policeman. He asked the policeman to resign from his job and “be content with agriculture and allied avocations” as did by the tribespeople. The Maoists left pamphlets of the CPI(Maoist) inside the house and pasted a poster on the front wall of the house calling for armed revolution against the Government of India.
Kanya had threatened the mother of the policeman, while others trained guns on him.
Shyam and Babu had supplied arms, food and other materials to the other accused at their hideout place in the forest by the Vellamunda hairpin bend near the place of incident, three days before the action, according to the prosecution.
The court is set to award punishments to the convicts on April 12, 2024.
