AGENCIES/ PUNE
MAHARASHTRA Police, investigating the Maoist links to the Koregaon-Bhima caste riots, have found letters that point to plans to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, officials said here today.
Police have also released pictures of four more persons involved in the Koregaon-Bhima riots of January 1, that left one person dead, and appealed to the public to inform them of their whereabouts.
One of the incriminating letters has been found from the home of Delhi-based activist Rona Wilson, who was among the five activists arrested from different parts of India on Wednesday as part of the probe into the riots conspiracy and “urban Maoist sympathisers”.
The letter refers to a requirement of Rs 8 crore to procure M-4 rifles and 400,000 rounds and speaks of “another Rajiv Gandhi-type incident”.
Former Prime Minister Gandhi was killed by a LTTE suicide bomber during his campaign for the May 1991 Lok Sabha elections in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu.
The investigators also claimed that the communication seized from the laptop of one of the arrested persons says that “Modi has successfully established BJP government in more than 15 states… if this pace continues, then it would mean immense trouble for the Maoist party on all fronts”.
On Thursday, Pune Joint Police Commissioner Ravindra Kadam said police had “sufficient evidence to show the participation of Maoists and the inspiration they provided to the organisers (Elgaar Parishad)”.
The latest developments of Maoist plans to assassinate the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister have evoked reactions from different political parties in the country.
Govt serious about PM’s security: HM
The government is serious about the security of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said, amid reports of an assassination plot by Maoists. “We are always serious about the prime minister’s security. The Maoists are fighting a losing battle. They are now active only in 10 districts in the country,” he told a press conference here after a two-day tour of Jammu and Kashmir.
The police in Pune yesterday told a court that they had seized a “letter” from the Delhi residence of one of the five people arrested on Wednesday for having alleged “links” with the banned CPI (Maoist).
The purported letter allegedly mentioned of a plan to “assassinate” Modi in “another Rajiv Gandhi-type incident”, the police told the court.
Singh said the Naxal violence will come to an end soon as their area of influence has come down from 135 districts in the country to 90 but they are very active in only 10 of these.