Explosives 'meant' for PW seized

HYDERABAD: Managing director of the Jana Harsha Group of Companies, T V Ramana Murthy, was detained for several hours at the Ibrahimpatnam police station on Friday following suspicion that he was planning to supply weapons to the People’s War naxalites.
Cyberabad police commissioner M Mahender Reddy said that explosives meant to be supplied for the People’s War, were seized from a room located in a land belonging to Ramana Murthy.The commissioner said that over 100 gelatin sticks, fuse wire, detonators, 5 kg of gun powder, printed letter heads of the PW and some literature concealed in a gunny bag, were found on June 29.
“We had reliable information that the explosives were to be collected by the PW and kept a watch. However, the naxalites got wind of the police presence and did not come to collect it. Following this, the place was raided and the material seized,� he said. Murthy was released later in the evening after he gave an undertaking saying that he would appear before the police whenever his presence was required.
Murthy, then came to the Cyberabad police commissioner’s office where NTR Telugu Desam leader Lakshmi Parvathi, along with some staff of his company, who held a dharna after the arrest. Ramana Murthy told reporters that the explosives were planted at his premises as part of a conspiracy hatched by chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu. Murthy claimed that he had highlighted the misdeeds of Naidu in his magazine Vijaya Viharam due to which he was being harassed.
Murthy said that the government cannot stop him from publishing “investigative articles� by filing false cases against him. Police sources said that the People’s War naxalites of Nalgonda district had blasted the guest house of the Jana Harsha Group near Ibrahimpatnam in February this year and blackmailed its management forcing them to supply explosives.