The arrests of Kerala’s top Maoist leader Roopesh, his wife Shyna and three of his accomplices near Coimbatore on Monday by a special police team was based on a tip-off from the Andhra Pradesh Police, according to sources in the Tamil Nadu Police. “Internal and intra squabbles within various factions of the CPI(Maoist) played a major factor for the arrests. There are issues arising out of linguistic and attitudinal differences,” said a source in the Tamil Nadu Police.
Interestingly, Kannan and Veeramani, two of the arrested Maoists are from Tamil Nadu. “What is curious is that the Maoists were arrested by the Tamil Nadu Police following a tip-off by the AP Police. The arrests were made near Coimbatore and the region is known in Maoist circles as the tri-junction, the area where Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnatraka overlap,” said the source.
He said the Tamil Nadu unit of the CPI(Maoist) headed by Kalidos is on war with its own cadre as well as cadres from other State units. “Kalidos is a person who enjoys all good things in life besides being an autocrat. This has earned the wrath of the cadre within Tamil Nadu as well from those in other units. Wine, women and wealth, an anathema to the extremist movement, played a significant role in dividing the Maoists,” he said.
The central command of the CPI(Maoist) has asked for status reports from the three States. “Extra marital affairs, sex and linguistic differences has caused rift and consternation among the cadre. The dominance of Telugu speaking people in the organisation is also a major reason,” said another official.
Tamil Nadu Police itself has acknowledged that the Maoists are having a free run in the State. Asra Garg, the young IPS officer, who was the Superintendent of Police in Dharmapuri district till recently, had told journalists about the arms training programme organised by Maoists in various places including Chennai. He had even mentioned Thudi, a NGO, which is organising arms training for many villagers.
According to Garg, Maoist leader Kalidos is believed to have supervised the arms training camp. Some of the NGOs are believed to be frontal organisations floated by the Maoists. But, officials refused to name the organisations. But Intelligence agencies are of the view that Maoists are not active in the state. “But they use Tamil Nadu as a transit point,” said an official who tracks the movements of left Wing Extremists (lWE) in the State.