As many as 128 organisations suspected to be having links with Maoists were identified by the UPA Government in 2012 and some of those arrested by the Maharashtra Police in recent crackdown were part of these front groups of the red ultras, officials said on Wednesday.
As the Government received flak for the arrest of a few rights activists for suspected Naxal links, officials came out with a list, prepared by the then UPA dispensation in 2012, of organisations “having connections with the Maoists”.
“The UPA Government had, in December 2012, identified 128 organisations with linkages to the CPI (Maoists) and written to all State Governments asking them to take action against people involved with these organisations. Seven of those Varavara Rao, Sudha Bhardwaj, Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Mahesh Raut arrested so far belong to the organisations appearing in this list,” a Government official said requesting anonymity.
While Rao, Bhardwaj, Ferreira and Gonsalves were arrested yesterday, Gadling, Wilson and Raut were arrested on June 6.
Ferreira and Gonsalves, two of the five arrested yesterday, were held in 2007 too and they had spent several years in prison. Similarly, Rao has been arrested several times by the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Police in the past.