The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday conducted a series of raids and searches in Telangana and Chhattisgarh in connection with an August 2023 case involving recovery of explosive materials, drones and a Lathe machine involving the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) for use against security forces.
The NIA had registered the case against 12 accused after the explosive materials, drones and a Lathe machine were seized from three of them in June in Cherla mandal of Kothagudem.
The three accused were arrested by local police working jointly with other security agencies. The cache was intended for use in manufacturing of country-made arms, to be deployed against the security forces in India’s Naxal affected areas.The case was subsequently handed over to the NIA in view of its major inter-State security implications for the country. “As part of its continuing investigations in the Cherla drone case, as it has come to be known, the NIA on Saturday raided eight locations in the two states of Telangana and Chhattisgarh,” the agency said in a statement.
Searches at the premises of the accused at five places in Warangal and two in Bhadradri Kothagudem in Telangana, as well as one place in Bijapur, Chhattisgarh, led to the seizure of several digital devices and incriminating documents, the NIA said.
Detailed examination of these devices and documents is under way to unravel involvement of the accused in extending logistic support to CPI (Maoist), a Left Wing extremist organisation involved in different kinds of unlawful activities with stated aim of overthrowing Indian government through a prolonged so-called ‘people’s war’.