KOCHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has decided to arraign a Malappuram native as accused in the Kozhikode Maoist case in which Alan Shuhaib and Thwaha Fasal have been arrested.
CP Usman, 40, a resident of Chembarasseri, Pandikkad in Malappuram district will be arraigned as the third accused in the case. NIA approached the court in this regard on Thursday. Usman was with Alan and Thwaha when the police intercepted them in Kozhikode on November 1, 2019.
However, Usman managed to escape. “Usman is wanted in several cases registered in Wayanad, Thrissur and Malappuram, including one for propagating Maoist ideology in Malappuram district. Various agencies have been tracking him ever since the Kozhikode case was registered,” an NIA source said.
NIA has received the mirror images of the digital devices seized from Alan and Thwaha. They were retrieved with the assistance of the Regional Forensic Science Laboratory (RFSL), Kannur. NIA will interrogate the duo based on the information received from the digital devices.
Meanwhile, in the petition filed at the NIA Court seeking the custody of the accused, the national agency claimed the youths were members of CPI (Maoist). “The accused had nurtured the Maoist ideology since 2015 and subsequently joined CPI (Maoist) and had propagated the ideology under the cover as the active member of a mainstream political party.
They clandestinely participated in various conspiracy meetings and had been part of various programmes organised by banned CPI (Maoist) and its frontal organisation,” the petition said.