Mumbai, March 22: Posters put up by Nepali Maoist activists at Andheri railway station here have sent Mumbai police into overdrive, with top intelligence officials swinging into action after the matter was brought to their notice today.

The police did not know about the posters, which seem to have appeared sometime in February. The posters, which have pictures of some of the top Maoist leaders in Nepal, ask youths to join their agitation and help the movement in whatever way they can.

“We will be taking a serious look into it and will find out if the presence of Maowadis in Mumbai or the state can be ascertained,” a high-ranking official with the state intelligence department said. This was the first time, he added, the police had come across any indication of Maoist presence in the city.

The official said the posters were a “definite worry” as they have appeared close to the elections. “The point is what happens in Nepal has a direct bearing on India. We cannot ignore the Maowadi activity in Nepal and say it is not happening in our courtyard.”

What is of concern is that Mumbai provides any subversive group the anonymity of a large city with unaccountable human traffic every day. “Any group here can easily merge with the other underground groups and carry out joint operations,” the officer said. “It is always a quid pro quo — ‘you help us out here and we will help you there’. And there already is growing Naxalite presence in regions close to Nagpur like Gadchiroli and Gondia.”

Additional director-general of police (law and order) Rahul Gopal said for the coming polls, the state government is getting more help from the Centre as the “threat perception” in the Naxalite areas around Nagpur is “very high this time”.

Gopal added that the rebels, in a change of tactic, have begun launching attacks outside their areas of influence. “They want to take us by surprise by hitting targets in areas they did not venture into earlier,” he said. “Only recently, they burnt the vehicle of the superintendent of police in Gadchiroli.”

If the posters have sent the police force into a tizzy, they have unnerved Nepalis settled in Mumbai or those who have come here for work as they fear that the police might drive them away in a bid to pre-empt Naxalite strikes.

“We left our places because we could not find any job there. But if the Maowadis are actually here and try to enlist our support in whatever way, the police will find it easy to locate us and send us home to a life we escaped from,” said Gopal Thapa, who runs a small mobile Chinese eatery in Borivli.

Like Thapa, Prem Bahadur Lamichame is also a worried man. Lamichame, who came here last year to work in a security agency, said the Maoists have an instinctive dislike for anybody in uniform. “I hope they don’t see me here because, looking at my uniform, they may feel that I have joined the police. That would be disastrous as they can locate my family members in Dhankuta (Nepal) and persecute them.”

Police officers said the Maoist activists, if found, would be sent back to Nepal immediately. “It’s the latest headache for us,” a crime branch officer added.