CHENNAI: The Sivaganga District Principal Sessions Court on Friday sentenced Maoist leader Roopesh to life imprisonment in a case involving the procurement of SIM cards using fake addresses.

This is the first conviction that law enforcement agencies in Tamil Nadu have obtained against the ultra-left leader, who was arrested in 2015.

Roopesh, who was the Western Ghats special zone committee chief of CPI (Maoist), was convicted on multiple serious charges, including fraud, forgery, and terrorism-related offences.

The Naxal leader is lodged in a Kerala jail, from where he was brought to the court in Sivaganga, which found him guilty after the prosecution proved charges under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

Roopesh and his wife Shyna, also a Maoist cadre, along with three others, were arrested in Coimbatore in May 2015 by a Q-branch team headed by inspector Chandramohan (since deceased). The police team had seized several SIM cards, which were obtained using fraudulent documents.

For instance, one of them was bought from Kanniyakumari using a fake Sivaganga address. These SIM cards were used in criminal activities, the police said.

On Friday, Roopesh was brought to the Sivaganga court under heavy security. The court found him guilty under eight sections of the law, confirming the charges leveled against him. The judge awarded him jail terms in each of them, the longest being life imprisonment under UAPA.

He is reportedly implicated in 16 other criminal cases across various districts of Tamil Nadu, including Coimbatore, Madurai, and Tirupur, apart from over 20 cases he is facing in Kerala.