PUNE: A Special Court in Pune sentenced Maoist cooperative to rigorous imprisonment of eight years, for allegedly being part of CPI (Maoists) organisations.
The Maoist operative has been identified as Arun Bhanudas Bhelke.
The court of Special ATS Judge S.R.Navandar pronounced the sentence here on Wednesday.
In addition to the main sentence under sections 38 and 20 of UAPA, the court sentenced Arun Bhelke to five to seven years imprisonment under IPC sections for the offences of cheating, and forgery, all these sentences are to be served simultaneously.
Arun Bhelke had been lodged in Yerwada Central Jail since his arrest in 2014 and was arrested along with her wife from Pune in 2014.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad arrested Bhelke and his wife Kanchan Nanaware alias Bhoomi in September 2014 from Pune, both were originally from the Chandrapur district of Maharashtra, his wife died last year in Pune’s Sasoon hospital following a prolonged illness.
Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) in their chargesheet had alleged that both were active members of the ‘Golden Corridor Committee of CPI (Maoists) and trying to recruit cadres from slums of urban areas, both have lived in Pune Mumbai and Raigad district of Maharashtra using fictitious names and fake IDs.
Special ATS court in its order (Operative part) has stated, “Accused Arun Bhanudas Bhelke is hereby convicted vide Section 235 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, for the offence punishable under Section 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, and he is hereby sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for the period of 5 years, and to pay fine of Rs.10,000, in default, to suffer simple imprisonment for the period of 2 (two) months, All the substantive sentences to run concurrently.”
Apart from section 20 of UAPA Arun Bhelke was also convicted under section 38 of UAPA and IPC sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 474. (ANI)