Two trade union leaders and the wife of one of them were detained in connection with investigations into Maoist network in the national capital, police sources said in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Trade union leaders Gopal Mishra and Pradeep as well as Mishra's wife Anu were detained by a team of Delhi Police's Special Cell, the sources said.However, no official was ready go on record on the detention issue. On April 4, Sunil Mandiwal, an assistant professor with Delhi University's Dayal Singh College, was detained for his suspected links with Maoists, including arrested leader Khobad Ghandy.
He was released after questioning. Police sources had earlier said that during investigations into the Maoist network in the capital it came to light that the extremists were infiltrating into trade unions in the city.
They had an active trade union in Okhla Industrial area. The Maoists were also targeting displaced labourers and bringing them under their fold, they said.
An NGO, Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners claimed that Mishra was taken into custody on April 25 from his residence in Ramnagar in east Delhi and his wife was picked up on Monday.
The CRPP quoted Ritesh Kumar, the owner of the house in which Mishra was staying as a tenant, as saying that police reached the residence along with Mishra at 11 am on Monday and waited till evening for his wife Anu to return.
"The house owner was later told by the police that they were taking him to the police station. Later, it became clear that along with Mishra another trade unionist Pradeep was also taken away by the police," the CRPP said.
The CRPP claimed that after a long search by his brothers, 'Gopal Mishra was found in New Friends Colony with Delhi Police' while there was no information about the others.
The NGO demanded their unconditional release. It has also sent a letter to the National Human Rights Commission on the issue.
Mishra is a member of the trade union 'Mehnathkush Mazdoor Morcha', a small organisation working among unorganised workers in the capital.
The CRPP said it has sent an email to a court in Delhi about the 'illegal' detention of the trade union leader. "We have sent an email to court. We did not have time to approach court in the routine manner. The email can be taken as a habeas corpus petition," a spokesperson for the CRPP said.
