Hyderabad: Chintakinda Kaseem was under watch

Hyderabad: The police told the High Court on Thurs-day that Osmania University associate professor Chintakinda Kaseem was a committee member of the Maoists, and claimed they had evidence to prove it. The police said Mr Kaseem was running a news magazine, Nadusthunna Telangana, on behalf of the Maoists.

Mr P. Narayana, assistant commissioner of police, Gajwel, furnished an affidavit before the High Court describing the circumstances that led to Kaseem’s arrest. A division bench headed by Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan had sought the affidavit.

On January 18, Mr Kaseem’s wife Snehalatha had filed a habeas corpus petition when he was taken into custody. The police produced Mr Kaseem before the bench headed by the Chief Justice on January 19 upon orders of the court. However, the High Co-urt expressed doubts on Mr Kaseem’s arrest and posed five questions to the police.

Expressing surprise that the police did not take action on Mr Kaseem for four years and suddenly arrested him on January 18, the CJ asked the police to explain the status of the investigation in the other cases against Mr Kaseem.

ACP Narayana stated that four FIRs were pending against Mr Kaseem since 2012 and he was acquitted in another two cases registered against him as the second accused. He said Mr Kaseem operated under the alias of ‘Karthik’ for contacting the Maoists’ underground cadre.

On why action had not been taken against on cases registered in 2016, the ACP said that underground and overground Maoist cadre were involved in the crime, and the people were afraid to give evidence.

He also submitted that following the confessional statement of Mandala Shyam Sun-der Reddy, who was a courier for Maoist leader Chandranna alias Atram, police had put surveillance on Mr Kaseem to trace his links with the Maoists. Apart from his confessional statement, the investigation officer also recorded the statements of a few surrendered Maoists, the ACP said.