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Ultra-Left eyeing the
Dabbawalas? |
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Anupam Dasgupta
Thursday, June 07, 2007 08:35 IST
The pen drive seized from alleged Naxalite Arun
Ferreira contained information about the
operational details of the city’s dabbawalas,
top officials of the anti-Naxalite unit of
Maharashtra Police told DNA Wednesday.
Ferreira had been arrested from Nagpur on May 8,
along with Murali alias Ashok Reddy, a Naxalite
divisional commander. The dabbawalas have
strongly reacted to their trade having anything
to do with police and security affairs.
Raghunath Dhondiba Medage, president of
dabbawalas’ association, said, “Ours is a clean
and totally transparent system. We don’t
tolerate anything even remotely suspicious.”
Anti-Naxalite unit officials have communicated
the development to higher-ups in the Home
department.
Read latest news at DNA
What intrigued the police and security officials
was the “interest” of the Naxalite-Maoist cadre
in the functioning of dabbawalas — a network
which has access to almost every home in the
city and suburbs.
“Ferreira’s pen drive contained information
about how dabbawalas operated flawlessly within
a systemic framework. The information is
exhaustive and also lists how the system runs
and makes profits,” said Pankaj Gupta, Special
Inspector General of the anti-Naxalite unit.
Police claimed that Ferreira, a Bandra resident,
was an active Maharashtra state committee member
of the Communist Part of India (Maoist) and had
considerable influence among the ultra-Left in
the state. Other information contained in the
pen -drive also revealed “his clear involvement”
in the Naxalite-Maoist scheme of things, sources
said.
“Information about this particular network (dabbawala)
is a worrying development,” said Nagpur Police
Commissioner SPS Yadav.
“Perhaps, the Naxalites were planning to
infiltrate the dabbawala network and use it to
their own advantage,” said a senior Intelligence
official on condition of anonimity. |
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