Kolkata: The National Investigation Agency on Thursday conducted searches at the homes of two activists in connection with a 2022 case registered in Jharkhand over revival of CPI (Maoist) in a few states. NIA had filed a charge sheet in the case in 2024.
A team of 14 NIA officers reached the Baghajatin residence of Jhelum Roy around 4.30 am with a warrant to search the premises. Roy, who completed her PhD in English a few months ago, said, “They came to my house with a search warrant and wanted to search the house. I allowed them. They were here for nearly four hours. They took two copies of little magazines I had and a receipt book.” The investigators also asked questions about her academic career. “They said the searches are being conducted in connection with a case in Jharkhand in 2022. I was not even there at that time,” she added.
Roy has done her bachelor’s in English from Presidency College and pursued her Master’s in English and later PhD from Jadavpur University. Roy is a prominent activist of Feminists in Resistance and was one of the organisers of the sit-in at Park Circus against SIR.
Another team reached the house of Tathagata Roy Chowdhury, state general secretary of Revolutionary Students’ Front in the morning. They questioned him to know if he was in touch with some of the accused in the case being probed. While the team came out after nearly four hours, they seized some magazines, leaflets regarding SIR and NRC and a copy of the charge sheet of the NIA in connection with the case. He was asked to reach the agency’s Ranchi office on June 24 for interrogation. “He had gone to study in Shillong. They wanted to know if he was part of any political activity there. They wanted to know if he is in touch with some of the persons named in the charge sheet,” said Indranuj Roy, a friend and functionary of the organization.
The team was also likely to meet a teacher in Nadia, Sukumar Kayal. “They asked me to stay at school after 11 am. But none came,” Kayal said.
The NIA registered a case against leaders, cadres and sympathisers of the banned outfit CPI (Maoist) in 2022 and named 12 persons in the FIR. They were allegedly “conspiring to expand, revive and propagate” the organization and its ideology. They were active in a number of states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh. It was also alleged that they were recruiting new cadres, conducting their training, raising funds and collecting arms and ammunition. They were training cadres in handling weapons and IED fabrication.
In Feb 2024, the agency filed a charge sheet against the organisation’s former eastern region bureau secretary and politburo member Prashant Bose and four other top leaders. In Dec 2024 the central investigating agency filed a supplementary charge sheet against a central committee member of the CPI (Maoist) Sabyasachi Goswami, a resident of Nadia.
