Maoists are providing higher education to their children and relatives in the country's renowned colleges with money received from extortion.
The National Investigation Agency's investigation revealed that the niece of Pradyuman Sharma, a member of the Special Area Committee of the banned organisation CPI (Maoist), is studying in a medical college in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
This fact was disclosed in a press communique released by the NIA on Wednesday.
Rs 1,13,70,500 was transferred to the medical college for her education expenses. This money was collected through levy or extortion. On Tuesday, the NIA seized the amount.
In the CPI (Maoist) Magadh Zone revival case, the NIA had arrested area committee member Pradyuman Sharma, his nephew Tarun Kumar, and Abhinav alias Gaurav alias Bitt.
The NIA has also filed a charge sheet against these three accused. Tarun's real sister and Abhinav's cousin are studying MBBS in a medical college in Chennai.
The NIA investigation revealed that Rs 1.13 crore had been transferred to the medical college for Tarun's sister's education. The accused claimed they had paid this amount to the medical college by taking a loan from their relatives.
However, according to the investigating agency, the money was collected as a levy.
The money was disguised as a loan and transferred to the medical college by the accused through their relatives' bank accounts. In the case, the NIA had earlier registered RC-05/2021/NIA/RNC under Section 25(1) of the UA (P) Act.
Notably, on January 20, 2023, the NIA filed a charge sheet against two accused under various sections of the IPC and UA (P) Act before the Special Court in Ranchi.
The investigating agency filed its first supplementary charge sheet in the case against another accused in June 2023, while the second supplementary charge sheet was filed against two others in December 2023.