Swamy said section 43D(5) of the UAPA was violative of the accused person's fundamental right to life and liberty as guaranteed by the Constitution even as the high court on Saturday extended the stay of the 84-year-old Jesuit priest at a private hospital in Mumbai till July 6.
In a significant development, a Maoist ideologue and a human rights activists have appealed to the Maoists in Chhattisgarh to immediately release the four policemen abducted by them. Revolutionary Telugu poet and a Maoist sympathiser Vara Vara Rao made the appeal to the CPI (Maoist) through the electronic media to immediately release the hostages without harming them. "there is a sense of urgency because I want to tell the Maoists not to harm the abducted policemen."
The Maoists have launched a helpline on the foundation day of CPI (Maoist) for people to register grievances and complaints against any errant cadre, a Maoist leader said on Monday.
The government on Tuesday, condemned the "mindless acts" of violence by Maoists during the 48-hour bandh call given by them in eight states, saying Naxals were not serious about their unilateral ceasefire call."It is clear the CPI( Maoist) are not serious about their pronouncement of stopping violence and having a meaningful dialogue with the government of India on various issues.
The Communist Party of India - Maoists on Monday warned the Jharkhand government to stop all search operations in Ghorabandha area for the abducted Block Development Officer from Monday night and fulfill their demands if it wants the safe release of the officer. Rakeshji, spokesman of CPI-Maoist- Bengal-Orissa-Jharkhand Border Regional Committee, said over the phone, "We will not take responsibility of the abducted BDO's safety if police action is not stopped."
With Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Front government in West Bengal not readily implementing the ban imposed on Communist Party of India-Maoist, Congress on Wednesday accused the Marxist party of "double speak" and warned if state governments implement Central laws "selectively", it would lead to "constitutional chaos."
In a statement sent to select media houses on Wednesday, the CPI-Maoists have declared that they would "rise up as a collective fist to drive out MNCs" from the country. The statement also reiterates that their mission is to wipe away the "treacherous rotten regimes" at the Centre and the states.
With the arrest of key leader of the Communist Party of India-Maoist, Andhra Pradesh police have busted a big conspiracy to carry out attack on a senior political figure or police official in Mehbubnagar district bordering Karnataka.
It is necessary to make incremental progress, state by state, rather than aiming for an illusory knock-out punch against the Maoists, write Dr Shanthie Mariet D'Souza and Dr Bibhu Prasad Routray.
Several trains in Jharkhand were either cancelled or diverted to avoid Naxal pockets and security beefed up as the two-day shut down called by the CPI-Maoist in Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal began on Monday.
Maoists in a bid to thwart the 'Operation Green Hunt' launched against them damaged two vehicles including one belonging to the police and created road blockades by cutting down trees in Visakha Agency area of Andhra Pradesh on Saturday, police said.
One of the top most leaders of CPI-Maoist in the country Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad was alive and safe, a senior Maoist leader has said.
For the first time, anti-Naxal forces are to be deployed in Assam and Uttar Pradesh. According to senior Union home ministry officials, 65 underground members of the CPI (Maoist) were arrested in UP between 2005 and August 15 this year.
The Centre's ban on the Communist Party of India-Maoist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on Monday would make the outfit more aggressive, according to Left Front partners.
Condemning the latest statement of home minister, CPI-Maoist politburo and central committee member M Koteshwara Rao alias Kishenji told rediff.com over phone that it was once again proved that the Nehru family was never in favour of formation of Telangana state and the earlier statement of the home minister was an attempt to hoodwink the people of the region.
Congress's Rajya Sabha MP and chief interlocutor of the Andhra Pradesh government who talked to the then PWG in 2004-05 speaks about his experience of tackling Maoism in the state and what could be done to curb the growing menace in India's central heartland.
The Communist Party of India-Maoist denied their involvement in the Thursday's carnage in which 16 people were killed in Bihar's Khagaria district. "It is certainly not the operation carried out by our cadres... and we are still not aware who perpetrated the violence," a senior CPI-Maoist leader, pleading anonymity, told a group of mediapersons.
Kobad Gandhi, a CPI-Maoist Polit Bureau member, was apprehended by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police on Sunday night following an input received from intelligence agencies, they said. Police sources, however, refused to divulge from where he was arrested.
Addressing media persons in New Delhi, Chidambaram said: "It was a somewhat bizarre offer. That is because, barely 3 hours after the so-called offer, the CPI (Maoist) attacked a joint patrol party of the West Bengal police and the CRPF in PS Lalgarh, district West Midnapore. The patrol party retaliated and three people were killed."
"I would like no ifs, no buts and no conditions," Chidambaram said in a statement in New Delhi, a day after the CPI-Maoists made a conditional ceasefire offer provided the government halted the offensive against them for 72 days and involve mediators for talks.
Maoists have indicated that they have not backed out of the talks with the government, but asked mediator Swami Agnivesh not to contact them through their channels alleging that the police was tracking their leaders through the letters sent by him.
'While there are indications of failure in some aspects, only a thorough review will reveal how the police camp with adequate strength was overrun, when there was daylight, by the CPI (Maoist),' he said in a statement in New Delhi.
"This is applicable for the entire country, all states and we have accepted it. But how to implement it is the government's business," Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee told media persons after a cabinet meeting in Kolkata.
'We are ready for talks with the Centre and West Bengal Government if the intellectuals, who visited the troubled Lalgarh area last Sunday, arrange for a meeting,' CPI-Maoist leader Sagar said in a statement.
Investigators on Friday told a Delhi court that Mohammad Omar Madni, a suspected terrorist, has disclosed about the links between Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Maoists in Jharkhand.
Estimates of what the Maoists extract from their nationwide extortion vary from Rs 1,200 crore a year to Rs 2,000 crore.
A Delhi court has allowed a plea of the police to conduct a narco analysis test on top Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy as the investigators alleged he did not cooperate with them despite having "thorough knowledge" about banned CPI-Maoist engaged in terror activities.
The Communist Party of India-Maoist on Tuesday finally broke its silence over the tragic death of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. The outlawed organisation described his death as the end of an era of a 'dictator, a war lord and an undemocratic World Bank agent'.Koteshwara Rao alias Kishenji, a senior underground leader of the CPI-Maoist, dismissed the outpouring of grief across the state after YSR's demise as an orchestrated show.
Maoists on Monday blew up a mobile tower in Palamau district on the first day of their 48-hour bandh in five states.
Communist Party of India-Maoist guerrillas on Thursday shot dead six persons of rival naxalite outfit, Sashastra People's Morcha, in Bihar's Rohtas district, the police said. The victims, involved in armed resistance against the CPI-Maoist, were renegade members of the organisation. The police denied that those killed were police informers.
Ramanna was instrumental in several killings and attacks on security forces, including the 2010 Tadmetla massacre that claimed the lives of 76 troopers. He was also involved in the 2013 Naxal attack in Darbha valley where 29 people, including some senior Congress leaders and policemen, were killed.
Suspended Delhi University Professor G N Saibaba and five others were on Tuesday convicted by a sessions court for their links with the Maoists.
The outfit also added that the People's Liberation Guerilla Army into the People's Liberation Army.
Nine persons, including five policemen, were killed and as many were wounded as CPI-Maoist rebels carried out simultaneous attacks on a police station and an outpost in Rohtas district.
The rebels fired randomly at the policemen, killing five constables, a chowkidar and three civilians.
The banned CPI (Maoist) rebels on Monday blew up a railway track in Jamui district, blasted a portion of the SDO's office and looted foodgrains from an FCI godown in adjoining Munger district during the 24-hour bandh called in five east Bihar districts. The shutdown was called to protest the recent arrest of their five cadres.
The blast took place when a police team went to Thalkobad school, located between Kiriburu and Karmapara, to defuse landmines planted by naxalites, Deputy Inspector General of Police Anurag Gupta rpt Gupta told PTI.
Sonepur-Gorakhpur passenger train was passing through the Chamua halt when the ultras triggered a powerful bomb causing damage to railway tracks.
The report said the first-ever jailbreak involving the escape of such a large number of prisoners, particularly Maoist rebels, could have been avoided.
One truck managed to cross the fateful spot, the second vehicle carrying at least 16 personnel drove over the landmine.