The Uttar Pradesh anti-terrorist squad (UP-ATS) on Wednesday took four of the nine persons suspected to have Maoist links in police remand for eight days.
The nine suspects were arrested from Hindon Vihar and Sadarpur in Noida while a tenth arrest was made from Chandoli in eastern UP, on the morning of October 16.
The ATS on Wednesday obtained a police remand of four accused — Ranjit Paswan, Ashish Saraswat, Krishna Ram and Pawan Jha — all of whom were arrested from Noida.
“With the remand, we are hopeful of arresting more persons and are also anticipating recovery of bigger weapons such as AK-47 rifles. These people already have access to the weapon in Bihar. Our Varanasi and other UP ATS teams are trying to trace more accused in the case. On October 16, we recovered an INSAS rifle and magazines from Sunil Ravidas who was arrested from Chandoli,” Anup Singh, deputy superintendent of police (UP-ATS), said.
During the raids in Noida, ATS teams had also recovered 45 gelatine sticks and 125 detonators from the accused persons, raising suspicion that the group may have been planning an explosion.
Ranjit hails from Chandoli, Krishna from Sasaram in Bihar, Ashish from Aligarh while Pawan hails from Madhubani in Bihar. Officials said that the four were taken on remand as they had previous Maoist links and could reveal more information. Ranjit and Krishna are also trained in making bombs, the officers said.
“They were given logistic support by few locals, who were also arrested. Ranjit and Krishna Ram have a criminal history and have been to jail in connection with suspected Maoist activities. After the arrests, a number of Central agencies have started investigating their activities,” Singh said.
Sources said that further arrests could possibly be made from eastern UP and other states. Sources said that the group is suspected to have a hidden agenda, as observed from their activities and recoveries made.
Six of the nine who were arrested from Noida’s Hindon Vihar had hired a flat and were operating from a property dealing office so as to not raise any suspicion. During the initial raids, officers suspected that the group was planning crimes but they were able to gauge the intensity only when detonators and gelatine sticks were recovered.
For the last month, ATS was tracking the accused through electronic surveillance and were alerted when they heard an intercept about bringing the ‘bigger weapon’ from Bihar to Noida, sources said.
