A retired High Court judge and several academicians have been named as “secessionist writers” in a list compiled by the state police’s intelligence wing and the department’s field units have been tasked to gather information about them.

The list has been prepared by the Special Branch of the police’s Criminal Investigation Department, sources said. Nearly twenty columnists — among them a retired High Court judge, three academicians and also a photographer — have been named in the list bracketed as “secessionist writers”.