D Dinesh, 32, a Coimbatore-based dentist, was held by the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) of the Kerala police on Thursday on suspected Maoist links. He was picked up from a clinic at Edayarpalayam on Thadagam Road, where he was working as a dentist.

An FIR was registered in 2017 by the Edakkara police in Malappuram about a meeting of CPI (Maoist) held at Nilambur forest in 2015. Efforts were on to trace the participants.

ATS arrested one Rajan Chittilappilly in December 2020, a suspected Maoist and a participant of the meeting. His inputs lead the ATS to learn of Dinesh also having taken part in the meeting and being in possession of arms.

Dinesh was booked under sections 25 (I) (b) (c) of the Arms Act and sections 20 and 38 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. An arrest warrant was obtained a few weeks ago in Manjeri, Kerala. Dinesh, who was taken to Malappuram by the ATS team, will be produced before the court and remanded to judicial custody.