Legal tangles hold up trial of 12 ‘Maoists’

The trial of 12 alleged Maoists who were arrested from Kolkata between 2009 and 2010 has not yet begun because of several legal proceedings pending in court.

Ten of the 12 arrested people have already been declared political prisoners by the criminal court.

The other two — Gour Chakraborty, spokesperson of the CPI (Maoist), and Venkateshwar Reddy alias Telegu Deepak — have also urged the Calcutta High Court to declare them political prisoners. Their cases are pending and the trial was stayed by the high court.

The CID arrested Telegu Deepak, allegedly a hardcore Maoist, on March 2, 2010, from Sarsuna in Kolkata and UAPA was applied against him. The police implicated Deepak in several criminal cases in West Midnapore, East Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia. Deepak is said to be studying Sanskrit and the Vedas in jail and appealed to the Calcutta High Court for political prisoner status last year when his trial was under way. The Calcutta High Court extended the stay of the trial in March this year. The petition for political prisoner is pending in the high court.

The CID arrested Madhusudhan Mondal, Siddhartha Mondal, Sachin Ghosal, Sanjay Mondal and Radheshyam Das from South 24 Parganas on June 29, 2010, under UAPA for their alleged involvement with the Maoists. It was alleged that they were operating in Nandigram in 2007. The additional sessions court in Alipore framed charges against the five and declared them political prisoners last year.

Kolkata Police arrested five more alleged Maoists — Sudip Chongdar, Barun Sur, Akhil Ghosh, Bimal Mallick, Kalpana Maity — from Maidan in Kolkata on December 4, 2010. Since then, charges have not been framed by the sessions court though the charge-sheet was filed in due time. Last year, the court declared them political prisoners.

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