Kolkata, Oct 20 (Inditop.com) Describing abducted police station officer-in-charge Atindranath Dutta as a “prisoner of war”, the Maoists Tuesday night demanded the release of their arrested women cadres as the condition for his release.
“The police officer is our prisoner of war. He will be in our jail. He will be set free if our arrested women members between the age group of 40-60 and those who have children at home are released in the state,” top Maoist leader Koteshwar Rao alias Kishanjee told a section of the media from his hideout.
The Left-wing extremists abducted Dutta at gunpoint from his quarters and brought him to the police station under Jhargram sub-division of West Bengal’s West Midnapore district.
There the Maoists shot dead sub-inspector Dibakar Bhattacharya and assistant sub-inspector Swapan Roy before whisking away Dutta to their hideout on a motorcycle.
The rebels also looted money from a nearby Keshiapata branch of the State Bank of India and left posters demanding the release of a jailed Maoist leader, Chhattradhar Mahato.
The looted cash amounted to around Rs.1 million. SBI branch manager Bairagi Charan Naik said the operation was led by a woman who had firearms in both hands. “She was speaking fluent English, Bengali and Hindi,” he said.
Owning up responsibility for the raid, Koteswar Rao alias Kishanjee, issued a threat to kill any senior police officer of the rank of director general or inspector general if they ventured into the area.
“Yes, we conducted the raid. We killed the police officer and abducted the officer-in-charge (of the raided police station). And if the director general or any inspector general rank police officer goes there to free the OC, we will shoot them dead also,” Kishanjee warned.
Inspector General of Police (Western Range) Kuldeep Singh confirmed the rebels’ raid.
To a categorical question whether the Maoists would demand the release of People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) chief Chhattradhar Mahato, Kishanjee said: “We have been demanding his release. But his release is not on our agenda as far as Dutta is concerned”.
Dibakar Bhattacharya and Swapan Roy are the first two police officers to be killed by the ultras after the West Bengal government launched a massive security operation to flush out Maoist rebels from Lalgarh, 200 km west of Kolkata, in June. The Sankrail police station is located to the south of Lalgarh and close to the state’s border with Jharkhand and Orissa.
