Alappuzha: Police has sought custody of five persons arrested from Mavelikara near here last week for suspected links with Maoists.
Gopal, a former scientist of Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, was among the five arrested, police sources said.
They were arrested for allegedly holding a "secret" meeting in a lodge in Mavelikara on Saturday and remanded to judicial custody after producing before the CJM there.
According to police, the meeting was suspected to have been convened for forming a students’ front in support of the Communist Party of India (Maoists).
Police moved a petition seeking the custody of the arrested at the CJM Court yesterday and it would come up for hearing on Thursday.
The others who are on remand are Rajesh, Shiyas, Bahuleyan and Devarajan, sources said.
Meanwhile, writers and human right organisations in Chennai have raised concerns over the arrest of Gopal, claiming that he was a "well known civil rights activist in Tamil Nadu and also an active member in the Committee for the Protection of Civil Rights (Tamil Nadu)."
They said he was never arrested before and no charges were pending against him.
A press release from Peoples Union for Human Rights, Federation for Peoples Rights, former scientist V Natarajan of Atomic Research Centre, Kalpakkam, Peoples Union for Civil Liberties also condemned the arrest of Gopal.
PTI
