Various agencies have started investigating the surfacing of a video CD showing Kerala Maoist leader Rupesh calling for armed revolution against the State. The effort is to find out the origin of the video, the hideout of the Maoist leader and how serious the contents of the CD are. A massive hunt has already been launched for the Maoist leader himself.
The video clipping on the CD showed Rupesh, with face blurred, speaking about the urgency of launching an armed struggle against the State which had allegedly been militarised. A statement attached to the copies of the CD distribute to the media said this was being issued on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the CPI(Maoist).
Apart from Central agencies like the Intelligence Bureau, Kerala's Internal Security Investigation Team and the Special Branch and the Anti-Naxalite Squad of the Kerala Police are also looking into the matter. The first effort is to find out whether the person seen in the video is Rupesh himself and the place where the recording was done.
Despite the probe, top Kerala Police officials felt that the CD could be merely part of a campaign strategy of the Maoists since the State did not have the circumstances which might help the spread of Maoist movement. "Most probably, it is a bid to catch the attention of the people and the state following their failure to get support in the society," a top official said.
Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said that there was Maoist presence in Kerala but it had not assumed the shape of a threat. The Government was viewing with seriousness the reports that extremist activities were taking place in the State and the police had been instructed to take stringent action against this, he said.
Personnel of the Kerala Police and its specialised commando wing, Thunderbolt, have already started combing certain forest areas of Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur and Wayanad districts to identify the place where the recording had been done. Since the background shown in the video resembles a jungle, the police presume that it was shot somewhere in this forest region.
The face of Rupesh, absconding for the past several years, as seen in the video has been blurred in order to avoid identification. The agencies are trying to reconstruct the face from the video using digital technology and the assistance of the Kerala Police's Cyber Cell has already been called for.
According to the CD, said to be issued by the Western Ghats Zonal Committee of the CPI(Maoist), the organisation has reached a stage where armed struggle has become inevitable. The state has already been militarised and even democratic struggles were being suppressed using brute force, Rupesh says in an interview grabbed on the CD.
The extremist leader claims that Adivasis' life has become terrible, farmers are unable to carry on with their work and even the middle class is in debt trap. In this situation, the CPI(Maoist) is planning to launch people's struggles bringing all these sections together and more and more people are joining the Maoist movement, he says.
Anti-Naxalite Squad of the Kerala Police had launched its hunt for the Maoists in the forests of Kannur and Wayanad in February, 2013 after Adivasis in these areas reportedly spotted armed unidentified persons near their colonies. The specially trained Thunderbolt commandos took over the search later but so far the forces have not been able to find even a single Maoist.
The failure of the police in their mission had given rise to allegations that the entire operation was based on lies and hearsays and that they were terrorising the Adivasis in their colonies in the name of the reported presence of Maoists. Allegations of funds misappropriation have also been leveled against the anti-Maoist operation.
Rupesh on radar