Story of Communist Terrorism - Chapter 5
Naxalites seem to have a hold amongst the progressing minds as there have been incidences of university students being involved in Naxalite movements. Over several years, influential writers and Professors have also been arrested due to their involvement with the Naxals.
In the last chapter, another attack by Maoists was brought into the light and an arrest of a suspected Maoist was made. More characters are introduced in the fifth chapter; Sooraj, the Zonal Committee Head of the Maoists of the area; Comrade P, revealed to be Prakash Padmanabh, a renowned Professor of Delhi University with national and international connections, now confined to a wheelchair due to his disability; and Bhanumati, Prakash’s wife.
Rudra is taken to the Police Station and Mangtu is declared missing with his wife. In Rudra’s backpack the police find a laptop, and after searching his room, two phones, one of which was used for Maoist activities, a rough draft of the latest newsletter of Revolutionary Voice, a Maoist Journal, printouts, and a ‘blank’ paper is found.
The printouts are documents of Maoist texts relating to instructions for Comrades, rules of discipline, financial policy, expenditure guidelines, and ways of revealing the secrecy of important messages. This helped in revealing the texts of the supposedly blank paper.
The paper unveils a letter addressed to Comrade P and is signed off by S or Sooraj, the Maoist Zonal Committee Head. The letter mentioned the success of the Ambuja ambush and support towards the plan of attack on a high personality in Delhi to increase the fear of the Naxals. Rudra’s email uncovers a conversation thread between him and Prakash Padmanabh.
The last email of this thread was sent by Rudra with an attachment, it is a video of the mutilated body of Darshan with Maoists posing around. This infuriates Vikram and he starts beating up Rudra, heavily injuring him as a result.
The team then packed their bags for Delhi to arrest Prakash Padmanabh. From other emails Rudra, it was evident that Padmanabh was using his position as a professor in DU to brainwash and recruit young students for the Maoist agenda.
When they reach Padmanabh’s home they are greeted by Bhanumati, his wife. Prakash was holding an academic class with a female and two male students.
After the peaceful signing of the arrest warrant, chaos ensues. The female student suddenly attacks Vikram and under the guise of solving the conflict, Bhanumati puts her hand on Vikram’s shoulder and he out of instinct shoves her and finds her and Padmanabh on the floor.
The male students have recorded the whole event which makes Vikram realize all was for the show. Both husband and wife then agree to follow him to the station in their vehicle with one of his men.
Naxalites seem to have a hold amongst the progressing minds as there have been incidences of university students being involved in Naxalite movements. Over several years, influential writers and Professors have also been arrested due to their involvement with the Naxals.
Last year, in 2022, The Special Task Force (STF) of the Kolkata Police arrested a Ph.D. student, Joyeeta Das of Jadavpur University for her involvement in the Naxalite activities.
The Security Force had recovered Maoist literature, including video clips from Das, which assisted in the arrest of two more persons related to Naxalites.
Joyeeta was also arrested in 2013 for being associated with a Naxalite movement as a member of the Matangini Mahila Samity. In her arrest in 2013, the police had claimed to have seized incriminating Maoist documents and letters from her possession.
In another case of 2013, the Police of Maharashtra arrested a former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student, Hem Mishra, and two others, Pandu Narote and Mahesh Teerki, from the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra for their alleged links with the Maoists.
According to the Police reports, the people were taken into custody due to their possession of Naxal-related microchips and documents. It was stated that they were working as Naxal couriers under the instruction of a top Naxal cadre.
In 2014, a professor, GN Saibaba was arrested by Maharashtra police for acting as an urban source for the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). GN was an English Professor at the Ram Lal Anand College, DU.
According to the records, the documents listed under GN’s name consisted of a letter to his daughter’s school headmaster, one to his college, and another to a Hyderabad institute.
It was also mentioned that those documents written under the name ‘Prakash’ comprised letters to Maoist Cadres in which he spoke about his disability, his frustration in the country's capital and his wish to work underground for the Maoists instead of performing management work.
In 2017, the court of Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district passed a judgement of him being guilty of his alleged Maoist links and for being involved in activities which are a threat to the internal security of the country. Saibaba was announced guilty under various provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
In a case of 2020, Chintakindi Kaseem, an Associate Professor in the Telugu Department of Osmania University of Hyderabad, Telangana, was arrested for having links with the Maoists.
According to the Police, banned Maoist party literature, pamphlets, CDs, and electronic equipment have been found in Kaseem’s room. Kaseem used to provide financial aid to support the Maoist cause and had links with top Maoist leaders.
Kaseem was also a part of the Revolutionary Writers’ Association (RWA), an association founded by the writer Varavara Rao.
Varavara Rao, who was arrested for having connections with the Maoists. According to the Police, Rao is an urban Naxalite who provides publicity, manpower and money to the Naxals.
Varavara Rao has voiced his support for the Naxals all his life, stating in his interviews that he will carry forward the ideologies and the legacy of the Maoists.
He was charged with conspiring with Maoists to create disturbances in the state of Maharashtra. His association, RWA functioned as a platform to spread the activities of Naxalites in a positive light.
Another Urban Naxalite, Gautam Navlakha was arrested in 2018 for being involved with the Naxals, under the same case of Varavara Rao. Both were charged under various provisions of UAPA.
In the coming chapter of the book, readers will get to witness a court hearing which occurred due to a mistake on the side of the Police. This leads to four steps back in the Ambush case.
