The National Investigation Agency (NIA) charged eight people on Friday with supplying deadly explosives, drones and other equipment to the Naxals for attacking security forces in the Naxal-infested areas of India.
All eight accused are in custody following their arrest under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967, and the Explosive Substances Act.
The federal agency said while three of them, working as couriers for the proscribed outfit, were nabbed when they were on their way to supply the explosives, drones and a Lathe machine, the others were apprehended subsequently.
The NIA investigations have revealed that the explosive material recovered from the possession of the three arrested originally, namely Punem Nageswar Rao, Devanuri Mallikarjun Rao and Vollepogula Umashankar, was supplied to them by accused Jannu Koti, Arepalli Srikanth, Tallapalli Arogyam and Bontha Mahender. The latter four had procured the stuff from Sonaboina Kumaraswamy, who held a licence for dealing in explosives.
Investigations have further revealed that the courier trio of Punem, Devanuri and Vollepogula had purchased and supplied a drilling machine to the Naxals in March 2023.
“They had further purchased a lathe machine in May 2023 for delivery to naxal organisations involved in various terrorist activities with the stated aim of overthrowing the Indian government through a prolonged so-called ‘people’s war'”, according to the NIA.
These accused had also purchased a drone for the Naxals in May 2023, intended for spying on the activities of security forces inside the forest, said the agency.
They further received explosive materials, meant to unleash violent attacks on security forces, from their co-accused to be supplied to the accused underground Naxals.
“The cache that the three accused were carrying at the time of their arrest was intended for use in the manufacturing of country-made arms, to be deployed against the security forces in India’s Naxal-affected areas,” said the NIA.
The case was initially registered at Cherla police station in Telangana on June 5 of this year and taken over by the NIA on August 3.
