Retired customs officer arrested for Maoist links
By IANSFriday, April 23, 2010
GANDHINAGAR - Gujarat police have arrested retired customs officer Vishvanath Varadarajan Iyer for suspected Maoist links and recovered leftwing literature and CDs from his possession.
Iyer, according to the police, is a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist Janshakti and has been responsible for training left extremists in the forests of Kerala in 2000.
Police found literature pertaining to CPI-ML Janshakti as well as incriminating CDs Iyer. Highly placed sources say Iyer’s possible left links outside the country are under the scanner.
According to South Gujarat range Inspector General of Police A.K. Singh Friday, Iyer took voluntary retirement in 1988 at Nagpur. “His leftist inclinations turned extremist over time, post retirement,” he said.
The anti-Maoist drive of south Gujarat police has reaped good results with the arrest of Niranjan Mahapatra from Surat, K.N. Singh from Bhavnagar, Ramu Pawar from Mumbai, Avinash Kulkarni, Bharat Puwar, Silat Puwar, all from Dangs, Maka Chaudhary from Mandvi, Jeram Goswami from Songadh and Satyam Rao from Andhra Pradesh.
Iyer’s arrest follows the arrest of tribal activists like Avinash Kulkarni, Bharat Puar and Silat Puwar from Dangs. Bharat Puwar and Sulat Puwar had attended the training session at Kerala where Iyer had imparted training.
