Court dismisses plea for Maoist's custody as cops withdraw it

A Tamil Nadu court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by Coimbatore police seeking custody of a suspected Maoist trainer for interrogation after it expressed willingness to withdraw the plea.

The suspect, Deepak, is undergoing treatment at a government hospital here and his counsel wanted to meet him in connection with the petition.

He was arrested on November 9 by the Special Task Force of Tamil Nadu Police during a search in a dense forest area near here on the state's border with Kerala.

Deepak, who hails from Chhattisgarh, was remanded to judicial custody till November 22.

Principal District and Sessions Judge R Sakthivel allowed counsel Bhavani P Mohan and a group of lawyers to meet Deepak at the hospital and adjourned the case till 3 PM.

However, high drama prevailed in the hospital premises as authorities there and jail officials allegedly refused to allow the team to meet him, despite producing the judge's order.

Even as the lawyers went to the court and narrated the incident to the judge, police said they were withdrawing their petition seeking custody of Deepak, following which it was dismissed.

Later, the counsel claimed that both the hospital management and jail officials had refused permission to meet Deepak, which was his basic fundamental right.

As the lawyers again approached the judge, the prosecution said it was withdrawing the petition following which it was dismissed.

The court was told that there was danger to the life of Deepak, who was arrested and assaulted by police, his counsel said, adding that a contempt of court case will be filed against the hospital management and jail officials.

Deepak, said to be a master trainer in Maoist activities, had managed to escape after being injured in an alleged encounter with Kerala Police which led to the killing of four ultras near Attapadi in Palakkad district during combing operations on October 28 and 29.

Sessions Judge Shaktivel passed the remand order after visiting him at the prisoner's ward in the government hospital.