A professor of the Osmania University in Hyderabad was arrested on Saturday for suspected links with the Maoists, police said.

Associate Professor of Telugu department, C Kasim was allegedly involved in a case registered under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act among other sections in Mulugu Police station in 2015.

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“That case is under investigation and we collected the material evidences also. Recently some inputs have also been received,” Siddipet Police Commissioner D Joel Davis told news agency  PTI.

“We obtained a search warrant and conducted searches at his residence in the early morning. We seized certain documents and some electronic evidence,” the police official said.

He further said the police have the information that the OU faculty is in continuous touch with Maoists party leaders. Kasim is allegedly working as an organiser of “united front vertical” of Maoists for Telangana state.

“He is the coordinator for funding and other things,” the official said adding Kasim will be produced in a local court in Gajwel on Saturday.

CPI senior leader Narayana alleged that the government was deliberately filing false cases to harass intellectuals under the pretext of having Maoist links

Last year K Jagan, an assistant professor of the Osmania Varsity and a member of Viplava Rachayitala Sangham (Virasam), was picked up from his residence  by a police team from Jogulamba Gadwal district for his suspected links with the Maoists.

Earlier, in 2018, famous Telugu poet and Virasam leader P Varavara Rao was arrested by Maharashtra Police in Bhima Koregaon case.

In 2018, ten  activists including Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Sudha Bharadwaj were arrested by the Pune police from different parts of India, for their role in Pune’s December 31, 2017 Elgar Parishad gathering that served as a trigger for the caste riots in Bhima-Koregaon the next day, where one person died in the violence.

These activists are accused of having alleged links with the banned CPI-Maoist and hatching a conspiracy to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as to overthrow the elected government and booked under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).