Pro-Naxal intellectuals may face legal troubles

Civil society representatives raising voices in favour of Naxals may find themselves in legal tangles as the Home Ministry has warned of action against them under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Civil society representatives raising voices in favour of Naxals may find themselves in legal tangles as the Home Ministry has warned of action against them under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

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"It has come to the notice of the Government that some Maoist leaders have been directly contacting certain NGOs and intellectuals to propagate their ideology and persuade them to take steps as would provide support to the CPI (Maoist) ideology," the Home Ministry said in a statement.

Making an appeal to the public to be beware of such propaganda, it said under section 39 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, any person who commits the offence of supporting such a terrorist organisation with inter alia intention to further the activities of such groups would be liable to be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years or with fine or with both.

"General public are informed to be extremely vigilant of the propaganda of CPI (Maoist) and not unwittingly become a victim of such propaganda...the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and all its formations and front organisations are terrorist organisations whose sole aim is armed overthrow of the Indian State and they have no place in India's parliamentary democracy," the Ministry said.

The CPI (Maoist) continues to kill innocent civilians, including tribals in cold blood and destroy crucial infrastructure like roads, culverts, school buildings, gram panchayat buildings so as to prevent development from reaching under-developed areas, it said.