The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on December 1 chargesheeted eight persons for allegedly supplying deadly explosives, a drone and other equipment to the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) for attacking security forces deployed in the Naxal-affected areas.
All the eight accused are in judicial custody following their arrest. Three of them, allegedly working as couriers for the proscribed outfit, were arrested while on their way to supply the explosives, drones and a lathe machine, whereas the others were arrested subsequently.
According to the NIA, the explosives seized from the three accused, named Punem Nageswar Rao, Devanuri Mallikarjun Rao and Vollepogula Umashankar, was originally supplied to them by accused Jannu Koti, Arepalli Srikanth, Tallapalli Arogyam and Bontha Mahender. The latter four had got it from Sonaboina Kumaraswamy, who held a licence for dealing in explosives.
Accused Punem, Devanuri and Vollepogula bought and supplied a drilling machine to the outfit in March 2023. They also purchased a lathe machine and a drone for the CPI (Maoist) in May 2023. The drone was to be used for spying on the activities of security forces in the forest areas.
“The cache that the three accused were carrying at the time of their arrest was intended for use in the manufacturing of country-made arms, to be deployed against the security forces in Naxal-affected areas,” said the agency. The case, initially registered at the Cherla police station in Telangana on June 5, 2023, was taken over by the NIA on August 3.
