Kochi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) raided the house of Maoist leader Muralidharan Kannampally in Thevakal on Tuesday. The house belongs to his son. The NIA team comprising eight officials entered the house by breaking the lock. According to NIA,  the agency seized several incriminating digital devices, documents from the residence. 

The searches were part of a case related to a conspiracy for waging war against the government by the members of proscribed CPI (Maoist), NIA said.

"The NIA on Tuesday extensively searched the premises of a key aide of Maoist Sanjay Deepak Rao in Ernakulam district of Kerala," said the statement issued by the probe agency.

Several incriminating digital devices and documents were seized from the premises of accused Konath Muralidharan alias Ajith alias Murali Kannambali, ex-central committee member of CPI (Maoist), it added.

"The accused had conspired to raise funds and recruit cadres to promote the activities of CPI (Maoist)," the statement said.

Muralidharan, who suffers from heart disease, lives alone in the house. The search is ongoing. Muralidharan Kannampilly was released from Yerwada Jail in Pune in 2019 after serving four years.

A native of Irumpanam, Kochi, Muralidharan was accused in the 1976 Kayanna Police Station attack case. He was a contemporary of P Rajan, who was tortured and killed by the police during the nationwide Emergency in 1976, in the Regional Engineering College, Calicut. He was nabbed by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad in Pune in 2015 after 40 years in hiding. Muralidharan is the son of late IFS officer Kannampally Karunakara Menon.
(With PTI inputs.)