Chennai: Vinayaga Nagar in Padappai, near Chennai, is far away from crowded Chennai and it appears a Maoist activist like Reena Joecy Mary found it ideal for a hideout. She had been staying in a single bedroom flat on the first floor paying Rs 3,000 rent for the last four months.
“She introduced herself as Kavya and came with a man who posed as her husband four months back. She claimed she was working in a garment export firm. She also gave Rs 5,000 as advance. But for the last one week she had been seeking the advance back claiming that her mother-in-law was sick and she wanted to vacate,” recalled the house owner, Arumugham was left wondering why she wanted to vacate since she had fixed a new fan only two weeks ago in the flat.
“Most of the days she will be alone. Sometimes a few women would visit her. A youth, whom she referred to as a younger brother, was the only person who used to visit her occasionally,” said Shanthi Sekhar, a housewife staying next door in the first floor of the building.
It appears Reena had started suspecting that Q sleuths were monitoring her. She wanted to sell her new fan, a free government-issue colour TV and an electric cooker as early as possible and vacate the house.
As she could not find any buyers immediately she decided to vacate the house leaving the articles. On Thursday, she was keeping her belongings in an auto rickshaw driven by her friend’s husband when the Q sleuths reached there and arrested her.
“It was obvious that police were keeping a close watch on her just as she suspected. We think the policemen were staying in a nearby house and watching her,” one of the neighbours said.
