NIA court announces sentence in Vellamunda Maoist attack; first accused Roopesh sentenced to 10 years in prison

KOCHI: The NIA court has announced the sentences of the accused in the Vellamunda Maoist attack case. The first accused Roopesh has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. Other accused Kanyakumari and Babu were sentenced to 6 years each, while Anoop Mathew was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

The NIA court in Kochi had found the accused guilty under the UAPA Act. The prosecution was not able to prove that Roopesh was guilty under the Arms Act and SC ST Act. Kanyakumari was sentenced only under section 38 of UAPA. The prosecution could not prove the charge of conspiracy against Anoop. Roopesh had told the court that it was unfortunate that the charges against them were proven.

The case against the accused is that on April 24, 2014, they barged into the house of Pramod, a civil police officer, threatened him and burnt his vehicle. The accused attacked Pramod for giving information about Maoists to high-ranking police officials. The incident took place on April 24, 2014.

This was the first major incident of direct attack carried out by Maoists in the Wayanad district. NIA took over the case in 2016. This was the first Maoist-related case that the NIA took up from Kerala. Several Maoist attacks took place in Vellamunda and Thondarnadu regions after that. In December 2014, Maoists had opened fire at Thunderbolt force in the Chappa forest region.