The NIA has filed a charge sheet against 20 Maoists before a special court for their alleged involvement in a conspiracy to strengthen proscribed terrorist organisation CPI (Maoist) with an intention to commit terrorist acts and waging war against the Government of India, an agency spokesperson said on Sunday. Kalidas of Ramanathapuram, Sreemathi B P of Chikamangaluru, Savithri of Chickamangaluru, S Danish of Coimbatore, Vikram Gowda of Uduppi, Soman of Wayanad, Sharmila of Bijapur, R Ragavendran of Vellore, A Santhosh Kumar of Coimbatore, P Thiruvengadam of Thiruvannamalai, B G Krishnamurthy of Chickamangalur, Rajan of Thrissur, Deepak of Bijapur, Dinesh D H of Coimbatore, Karthik of Theni, Ramesh of Bangaloe, T K Rajeevan of Kannur, Ramesh of Ranippettai, Iyyappan of Virudhunagar, Annesh Babu of Thirunelveli have been charged with various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Arms Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The case relates to the conspiracy for conducting physical and arms training, conducting zonal committee meeting of Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee of CPI (Maoist) in the Nilambur forest in Malappuram district in Kerala in 2016 in order to strengthen the proscribed terrorist organisation with an intention to commit terrorist acts and waging war against the Government of India, the NIA spokesperson said.

The case was initially registered by the Edakkara Police Station in Malappuram in September 2017 and taken over by the ATS Kerala subsequently. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) re-registered the case in August last year.

The accused, members of the CPI (Maoist), had trespassed into the reserve forests of Nilambur and conspired for conducting training camps, organised meetings of the Zonal Committee of the banned terror outfit, the NIA official said.