Ooty: The mystery that shrouded the suspected Maoist infiltration into Nedugalkombai, a tribal hamlet near Manjakombai limits, 30 kms off this hill town, was resolved after three years as police nabbed a Coimbatore based alleged Maoist who had been arrested earlier in Kerala.
It may be recalled that a gang of suspected armed Maoists invaded Nedugalkomabi on April 1 in 2016 shortly after sunset, amidst the assembly election heat then. The gang spoke on various issues, and asked the tribals to avoid elections. The gang also pasted some posters to boycott elections and vanished into the nearby jungles. After this, police rushed to the spot and stepped up combing operations in the near-by jungles bordering Kerala. But their efforts to nab them went in vain.
Kerala police arrested S.Danish (32), a Maoist leader hailing from the Puliakulam area in Coimbatore on October 5 in 2018 in Agali area near Palkad in connection with a crime and lodged him at the Tiruchur prison there. Police there came to know that 10 other cases are pending against him in different places. During their course of investigation, they came to know about his involvement in the alleged infiltration into Nedugalkombai village near Ooty in 2016 as he is learnt to have led the Maoist gang to the village then. They informed police in the Nilgiris and handed him over to the Nilgiri police on Thursday. Police here produced him at the district court here on Thursday afternoon.
Mr. Bala Nandakumar, public prosecutor of the Nilgiris, said that the court remanded Danish to police custody for one day. Police sources said that apart from Danish, four men and three women were involved in the invasion into the tribal hamlet. Efforts will be taken to nab them also, sources added.
