Mumbai, September 22
Kobad Ghandy, a politburo member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) who was apprehended by the Delhi police’s special cell on Sunday night, had gone underground way back in the early 1980s. He and his wife, Anuradha Shanbag, were actively involved with Naxalite groups in Andhra Pradesh and worked their way upwards in the party.

Meanwhile, a Delhi court today extended Kobad’s judicial custody by 14 days till October 6. He was produced before chief metropolitan magistrate Kaveri Baweja following a medical checkup after he had complained of a heart problem. The court directed he should be provided necessary medical treatment during his custody.

Anuradha, who was also a member of the CPI (Maoist) politburo, died in April last year after contracting cerebral malaria in the jungles of Chattisgarh.

Both Kobad and Anuradha came from privileged backgrounds. While the former belonged to a wealthy Parsi family with business interests in Mumbai and Mahableshwar, Anuradha's family owned coffee plantations in Coorg, according to their former associates who have long since left the movement to join the corporate sector or work with various NGOs.

Kobad studied at the prestigious Doon School and later went on to complete his chartered accountancy in London. After returning to Mumbai he along with wife Anuradha, who was a sociology lecturer, joined the Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR) that fought on behalf of Naxalites who were arrested in police action across the country.

As the committee’s joint secretary Kobad wrote and spoke extensively against police excesses. His works include a handbook on police atrocities against Naxalites.

Both of them went underground some time in the early 1980s after working in places like Gadchiroli in Maharashtra. However, friends of the Ghandys were afraid for Kobad after the Maharashtra police picked up the CPI (Maoist)’s top-ranking activists, Vernon Gonsalves and Shridhar Srinivasan, about two years ago.

The police say Kobad moved around the country though he often visited Delhi in connection with the party's propaganda work. A blog put out by the Maoist group (now defunct) and anonymous press releases popping up in the in boxes of sympathetic journalists were said to be the handiwork of a network set up by Kobad.