Lucknow: A Special ATS court in Lucknow on Saturday sentenced an active member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 for conspiring to wage war against the Govt of India by stockpiling prohibited arms and ammunition.The convict, Sunil Ravidas alias Kamlesh, a resident of Laxmanpur Sogai village in Chandauli district, was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Oct 16, 2016, for promoting the ideology of banned Maoist outfit and conspiring to wage a proxy war against the Centre and the state govt.According to ATS, the accused was found in possession of an INSAS rifle, two empty magazines and 100 live 5.56 mm cartridges at the time of his arrest.Investigators also recovered two .315 bore rifles, three empty SLR magazines, 126 SLR cartridges, and 193 cartridges of .315 bore from a concealed location.A case was registered at Saiyadraja police station in Chandauli under Sections 121A (conspiracy) and 122 (waging war against the state) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), along with the provisions of the Arms Act.The investigation was subsequently taken over by ATS. Based on the evidence collected during the probe, the agency filed a chargesheet under the provisions of the Arms Act on Jan 7, 2017, followed by a supplementary chargesheet on May 12, 2017.After examining the evidence presented by the ATS and hearing the prosecution, the ATS court in Lucknow held Sunil Ravidas guilty of collecting prohibited arms and ammunition and conspiring to carry out proxy war.Pronouncing its judgement on Saturday, the court sentenced the accused to 10 years’ imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 20,000.
