Malkangiri: Nine employees including the CEO of a Hyderabad-based private construction company have been remanded to judicial custody on charges of treason after being arrested for allegedly supplying explosives to Maoists in the district.
The nine, arrested on Friday, were produced before the sub-divisional Judicial Magistrate, Malkangiri, Gyanranjan Biswal yesterday who sent them to judicial custody for 14 days.
They were charged under sections 13 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Explosives Act besides several sections of IPC.
They were arrested near Chittapari village under Orkel police station in the Maoist-hit district after 12 bags of explosive materials were seized from behind a stone crusher unit owned by the company.
The materials included state-of-the-art electronic gadgets, detonators, gelatine sticks, IED, user manuals besides Maoist literature and mobile phones.
"The seized materials have the potential to prepare at least 1000 landmines and other such high explosives. With this major catch, police thwarted a possible plan of a major offensive by the Maoists in the district," Malkangiri Superintendent of Police Akhilesh Singh said.
Those remanded were the CEO of the company, Arvu Gopal, General Manager T Jagananda, Engineers Y Jingmaya and Y Madvav, and N Madhava, K Sudhakar, MV Ravi Kumar, T Ratnam and Pradip Biswas.
Another accomplice Karunakar Reddy of Nalgonda in Andhra Pradesh, allegedly acting as middleman between the company and Maoists, was absconding, the SP added.
A police team would visit Hyderabad and if required would interrogate the company`s managing director M Purushottam, Singh said.
The company was undertaking road construction from Balimela to Chitrakonda, Malkangiri to Balimela and Kalimela to Motu in the Maoist-hit district.
PTI
