COIMBATORE: A petition filed by Coimbatore District Police at the district court, seeking custody of suspected Maoist Deepak, was adjourned to Tuesday.
The decision comes after Centre for Protection of Civil Liberties (CPCL) filed a petition to appear on behalf of Deepak for the case.
The police filed the petition on Friday and sought custody of Deepak for five days. This was adjourned when it came up for hearing on Monday.
"We urged the court to deny them custody before hearing the arrested person's argument. Meanwhile, we submitted a memo appearance petition for allowing us to appear on behalf of Deepak and also asked for a copy of the custody petition filed by District Police," said CPCL functionary S Raja.
Deepak is still receiving treatment at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital for what is reportedly minor injuries on his leg.
A native of Chhattisgarh, Deepak was arrested by a Special Task Force team in the Coimbatore forest range.
He was booked under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, The Arms Act and Explosive Substances Act. Police sought custody of the suspected arms trainer to get more information about his role in Maoist operations and about fellow members.
Meanwhile, a police team from Sukma district in Chhattisgarh arrived in Coimbatore on Sunday night to take Deepak into custody to investigate cases registered in that State.
"After conducting a preliminary inquiry with Deepak at CMCH, the Chhattisgarh team approached Coimbatore court on Monday to get permission for his custody. As they had prepared the affidavit in Hindi, they have been asked to submit it in English or Tamil," said police sources.
Though they have obtained a Prisoner Transit (PT) warrant from their district, the Chhattisgarh team needs to get permission from the Coimbatore court by submitting proper case documents that confirm his alleged role in their cases, police sources added.
Police Superintendent of Sukma district, Shalabh Kumar said that Deepak is a very old cadre of the CPM movement.
"Some of the cadre who had worked with Deepak have surrendered in recent times. He had been involved in a few major incidents in Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh. In 2012, he moved to the tri-junction area. Till then, he was active in Chhattisgarh. We suspect that he was involved in the massacre of 76 CRPF jawans at Dantewada in April 2010. Once we get him to Chhattisgarh, we will be able to say more about his involvement," he explained.
According to Shalabh, Deepak is an expert in using the AK 47 and SLR guns; he generally steals the weapons from security forces after attacking the personnel.