Karnataka Timeline 2010

Date

Incidents

The Karnataka Home Minister V. S. Acharya claimed that the Naxalite (left wing extremism) menace in the State is weakening.

Two suspected Naxalites- Devendra alias Krishna and Gangamma - who were arrested by the Shimoga Police on charges of spreading Naxalism in Raichur District and in the Western Ghats, were brought in Raichur on January 10.

Two people, including an Uttar Pradesh Policeman, were arrested by the Gorakhpur Police for smuggling bullets in the Subramanyapura area of Bangalore.

Inspector-General of Police (North-eastern Range) K.V. Gagandeep has asserted that the CPI-Maoist presence is on the wane in Raichur and Gulbarga Districts and there are practically no reports of Maoist activities in the previously affected areas of these Districts.

Karnataka Home Minister V.S. Acharya said that the administration has gained considerable control over the Naxal-infested areas and the Centre has pulled out the State from the list of States hit by Naxals.

Sadashiva Gowda, an alleged sympathiser of the CPI-Maoist, was arrested by the Police near Hebri in Udupi District. A resident of Mairoli in Andar village, he was arrested on the charge of providing logistic support to the Maoists.

Four suspected Left Wing Extremists (LWEs) including a woman visited the house of senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Tingale Vikramarjuna Hegde at Nadpal village in Udupi District.

Andhra Pradesh Police raided a CPI-Maoist hideout at Shapur village near Gulbarga in Karnataka and seized Police uniforms, an AK-47 assault rifle loaded with 20 rounds and three spare magazines, a carbine machine gun with 70 bullets and three magazines, meant for use by a Naxal action team, five ICOMs and a GPS tracker set. The raid was carried out on the information provided by Chandrasekhar Gorebale alias Sudhakara alias Tippanna alias Nantappa, a cadre of the Karnataka State Committee of the CPI-Maoist, who was arrested at Aija village of Mahbubnagar District in Andhra Pradesh in the morning of June 13.

Gorebale was guarding the hideout which was to be used by an Action Committee detailed to carry out an attack on a politician or a Police officer either in Hyderabad or in the Telangana Districts. Sources said the weapons and the Police uniforms were supplied to Gorebale between February and April [2010] and were to be picked by an action committee constituted by the Maoist Central Committee to carry out an assassination in Hyderabad.

The seizure of Police uniforms indicated the Maoist plot to carry out a major assassination in Hyderabad or possibly in one of the Telangana Districts, a senior officer said. There have been two instances of Maoist cadres wearing Police uniforms carrying out assassinations in Andhra Pradesh. Two former legislators, S. Chinna Reddy (Anantapur) and Budda Vengal Reddy (Kurnool), were killed by Maoists in late 90s.

Police arrested senior Maoist leader Nilaguli Padmanabh in Shimoga District. Karnataka Police had announced an award of INR 500,000 for information on Padmanabh.

N. Nandakumar alias Rangappa (38) suspected to have been involved in Naxal (Left Win Extremist) activity in the border villages of Raichur Taluk (revenue division) in the 1990s was produced before the Judicial Magistrate First Class in Raichur. He had been arrested by the police in Shimoga on June 1, 2010. After the death of Bhaskar, a Naxal leader from Srikakulam of Andhra Pradesh, in an encounter in a village in Raichur taluk in 1987, Nandakumar is said to have shifted his activities to the Western Ghats. Nandakumar was arrested by the Hyderabad Police and then handed over to the Shimoga Police.

The Bangalore Police arrested Vinay Kumar (30) of Hassan and Devaiah (33) from South Kodagu. The two were trying to send Pasham Sridhar (27), Koyi Saratchandra (39) Darshanam Pradeep Kumar (29) and Gaddam Pavan Kumar (38) to Dubai where they would meet Altaf, a native of Baseri Kattemane near Mangalore. Altaf is one of the associates of Chhota Shakeel, an aide of Dawood Ibrahim. However, the four were arrested by Hyderabad Police and they were supposed to leave for Dubai on August 4. According to the Bangalore Police Commissioner, Shankar Bidari, the four arrested by Hyderabad Police were leaders of naxal [left wing extremist] organisations. Altaf had sent visas for four of them and to and fro air tickets by mail. Addressing the media on August 13, Bidari said the arrests clearly indicate a link between ISI and Left-wing extremists. "It has exposed the Pak link of naxals and Maoists. The ISI has engaged Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel to select Maoist leaders in India to facilitate them to carry out terror acts throughout the country," Bidari said. An unlicensed pistol, seven bullets, visa and passport documents and INR 1 million in cash were seized from Devaiah's house in Rabindranath Tagore Nagar in north Bangalore, Bidari said. "Bangalore police received credible inputs to the effect that the ISI had engaged Dawood Ibrahim and through his accomplice Chhota Shakeel to engage Maoists - that is Naxalite leaders in India - and instigate them to commit terrorist acts," the Police Commissioner said. He said Vinay Kumar had received INR 2.5 million from a person identified as Altaf alias Rakesh of Dakshina Kannada to organize terror acts.

October 16

Three women Maoist cadres, identified as Komala (21), Jaya (25) and Mallika (24), all three belonging to Koppa Taluk town in Chikmagalur District, surrendered before the District Deputy Commissioner Chennappa Gowda, at his office. All the surrendered, who had undergone training in guerrilla warfare and use of sophisticated weapons, have been acquitted by courts in various cases they faced, Gowda said.

The Anti-Naxal Squad of the Udupi Police arrested a suspected cadre of the CPI-Maoist, identified as Shekhar (25) alias Ranjith alias Ravi alias Prem, in the Basavapalu forests in Yedammoge village of Udupi District. Shekhar, a resident of Kumaramangalam, Pallipattu, in Tiruvallur District of Tamil Nadu is the Madurai 'area commander', of the CPI-Maoist, Inspector-General of Police (Western Range) Alok Mohan said. He had in his possession five gelatine sticks, 10 detonators, wicks, a prescription for medicines and banned literature of the Maoists. He had come to the District about one-and-a-half months back specifically to impart field-craft training, provide medical assistance to the Maoists, propagate Maoist ideology and act as a courier between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu members of the outfit, the Police said. Shekhar, involved in two cases in Tamil Nadu, - one of sedition and the other under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. The Tamil Nadu Police had announced a reward of INR 100, 000 on his head. Police arrested Shekhar, when he was planning to return to Tamil Nadu.