Power company ex-MD held for ‘funding’ Maoist group

KOLKATA: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday arrested the former managing director of a Jharkhand-based power and natural resources company from his residence in Kolkata’s Salt Lake in connection with alleged funding of a CPI (Maoist) splinter group. Mahesh Agarwal was arrested after a Jharkhand court turned down his “no coercive action” plea. A special NIA court on Wednesday sent him to a four-day transit remand, reports Rohit Khanna.

“There was a stay on the

non-bailable warrant

against him. The stay was vacated on Tuesday,” said NIA lawyer Debashis Mallick Choudhury. A team of NIA officers and officers from Bidhannagar Police reached his Salt Lake home around 10.30am on Tuesday. Sources said Agarwal allegedly tried to flee in a car with a Nagaland number plate but was intercepted. Agarwal’s lawyer Ayan Bhattacharya claimed he was being falsely implicated and that his name appeared only in the second supplementary chargesheet.