Former Naxalite Tech Madhu arrested for links with Nayeem

Hyderabad: Close on the heels of “eliminating” former Naxalite and notorious gangster Nayeemuddin, alias Nayeem, the Special Investigation Team of Telangana police has arrested another former Naxalite who is an expert in handling weapons.

Thota Kumaraswamy, alias Tech Madhu, was arrested for his alleged links with Nayeem who was killed in an encounter with police earlier this week.

The ex-Maoist had got the name Tech Madhu because of his expertise in manufacturing and handling of weapons including rockets. He had created a flutter among security agencies of the country by manufacturing 1,500 rockets and 40 launchers in early 2000 and the stockpile was seized from different places in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu during their transportation to the Maoists.

After his surrender to the police in 2006, he was rehabilitated by the government and he had opened a mobile phone store in Hyderabad.

He made it to the headlines again with the police arresting him for his alleged links with Nayeem and recovering a pistol from him.

Meanwhile, the police have sent the seized weapons including two AK 47 rifles and a sten gun, for forensic tests.

The police have also registered a case of Nayeem’s sexual abuse of minor girls who were kept in his captivity. The case is based on the statement of his cook, Farhana, who was also arrested.

The police have also registered another murder case against Nayeem after finding out that a minor girl and a man were killed by Nayeem.

It was Farhana who revealed the links of Tech Madhu with Nayeem.

Now police are looking for another former Naxalite, Sheshanna, alias Pasha. The house in Millennium Township in Shadnagar where Nayeem was shot dead was in the name of Pasha.

Proving the allegations that a former Director-General of Police (DGP) had links with Nayeem, the police have found out that the gangster had visited the officer’s residence on five days. The police have called for the recording of the CCTV cameras installed at the ex-DGP’s house.

In another development, former chief of the anti-Naxalite Special Investigation Bureau Shreeram Tiwari met DGP Anurag Sharma amid speculation that he is among the officials who had links with Nayeem.

Tiwari has already admitted that he met Nayeem on a couple of occasions as the SIB head as the gangster was helping police in anti-Naxalite operations. Denying that his meeting was in connection with Nayeem’s links, Tiwari expressed confidence that the police will bring out the truth.

In the continuing political blame game on who was responsible for making Nayeem into a Frankenstein, the main opposition Congress party has demanded a CBI probe into the entire episode.

Leader of opposition in the Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir said as Nayeem’s web of crimes was spread in several states, the Central Bureau of Investigation is the competent agency to investigate the matter.

Expressing concern over the number of weapons, plots of land, cash and documents in Nayeem’s possession, Shabbir said, “The SIT constituted by the state government would not be able to conduct multidimensional and interstate investigation.”

He said that the expertise of the income tax and revenue departments will also be required to trace the origin of the money seized from Nayeem’s houses.