Kolkata,November 26 :Sympathisers & family seek a probe into the encounter as Maoists call Bengal bandh.
THE DEATH of top Maoist leader Kishenji in an encounter with security forces in the forests of Burisole in West Midnapore district on Thursday has sparked a controversy. Maoist sympathisers, rights groups and political outfits demanded an inquiry on Friday into the shootout, alleging that the encounter was staged after the Maoist politburo member was arrested.
Even as the security forces termed it a big success in the anti- Maoist operations, civil society members marched in a rally to the secretariat, led by Telugu poet and Maoist sympathiser Varavara Rao and the slain rebel leader’s niece, Deepa Rao. The demonstration was taken out under the aegis of association for protection of democratic rights ( APDR).
Rao and Deepa flew down to Kolkata from Hyderabad to identify the body. Reiterating that Kishenji was killed in a fake encounter, Rao and other APDR activists offered ‘ red salute’ to the slain Maoist leader. Rao demanded a judicial probe into Kishenji’s death. He said the body should be sent back to the rebel leader’s hometown at Peddapalli in Andhra Pradesh.
A four- member team, including Rao and Deepa, met West Bengal chief secretary Samar Ghosh and requested him to make necessary arrangements to send the body back to Kishenji’s hometown. The state government did not object to the proposal.
Human rights activist and the head of government- appointed Maoist interlocutors Sujato Bhadra also demanded an inquiry into Kishenji’s killing. The Maoists meanwhile called a two- day shutdown in West Bengal, starting from November 26. Kishenji’s mother is likely to file a petition in the Calcutta High Court, demanding a judicial probe.
Police said the mortal remains of Kishenji, who stalked Jangalmahal for about two years, would be kept at the police morgue on Friday night as the experts from the central forensic laboratory had arrived late. “ It would be examined on Saturday morning by the central forensic experts. The body with multiple bullet injuries was taken to the hospital at 2.15 pm on Friday,” West Midnapore S. P. Praveen Kumar Tripathi told M AIL T ODAY . Security forces, meanwhile, continued combing operations in the Burisole forest to locate top Maoist woman leader Suchitra Mahato, who had managed to escape. Over 1,100 armed forces personnel, comprising the 167 and 184 battalions of the CRPF, CISF, the CoBRA, and sniffer dogs, were engaged in the operation.
CRPF director general Vijay Kumar said he was not surprised by claims that the encounter was fake. He termed the operation “ very clean and successful”. I T WAS a tactical and symbolic operation by the security forces. The Maoists were under pressure as public help for them was not there, which helped us,” said Kumar, adding that intelligence played a significant role in the operation. Kumar also hinted at the possibility of retaliatory attacks by the Maoists.
The Maoists had lost their intellectual face and official spokesman Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad, in a similar encounter in Adilabad, Andhra Pradesh on July 2, 2010.
The killing of Kishenji has once again brought into focus the role played by the special intelligence branch ( SIB) of Andhra Pradesh police. A specialised wing set up by the state police to deal with the Maoist activities across the state, the SIB has achieved major breakthroughs in the last five years which resulted in decimation of the Maoist movement in the state and the arrest of several top rebel leaders across the country. “ We share intelligence inputs with the Centre and various state governments,” DIG ( SIB) B. Sivadhar Reddy said in Hyderabad.
Recently, AP DGP V. Dinesh Reddy told the media that the state police was extending logistic, technical and intelligence support to the West Bengal police in conducting search operations there.
( With inputs by A. Srinivasa Rao in Hyderabad)
THE DREAM TEAM
An engineer hailing from Rajasthan, Manoj Verma is a 1998 batch IPS officer. He was the SP of troubled West Midnapore district when the Lalgarh agitation, led by Kishenji, erupted in November, 2008.
He has an excellent knowledge about the forest terrain and maintain a good network in the entire belt
Praveen Kumar Tripathi, 38, led the joint forces operation in Junglemahal on Thursday – the encounter in which Kishenji was killed. A graduate from Lucknow University, Tripathi is an expert in handling Leftwing extremism. He frequently addresses seminars on the subject of combating the Leftwing rebels in West Bengal & share his experiences
Family awaits his final homecoming
IT HAS been nearly three decades since slain Maoist leader Mallojula Koteshwara Rao alias Kishenji went into the jungle to wage a revolutionary war against the state. Since then, none of his family members and his childhood friends in Peddapalli village of Karimnagar district, had seen him or talked to him.
Now that Koti Anna, as Koteshwara Rao was fondly called by the villagers during his student days, has fallen to the bullets of the police, his family members are desperate to see at least his mortal remains.
“ The killing of Kishenji has exposed Mamata Banerjee’s real face. On the one hand, she was asking the Maoists to declare ceasefire and come for talks; and on the other, she resorted to this cruel act,” Varavara Rao charged, before leaving for Kolkata along with Kishenji’s niece to identify the slain Maoist leader’s body.
Kishenji’s niece Deepa, who was incidentally in Rao’s house in Hyderabad when the news of the encounter broke out, wept inconsolably.
She said she wanted to see the body of her uncle and though she was a child when he had left the village, she would still able to identify his face.
It was a gloomy scene at Kishenji’s house in Peddapalli. His 86- year- old mother Madhuramma, who has given several interviews to the media in the past, collapsed on hearing to the news. “ Though I could not see him for more than three decades, I was consoling myself all these days thinking that he was safe among the people deep in the forests, fighting for their cause. Now, he has left me and the people forever,” Madhuramma lamented.
There was a steady stream of relatives and friends to his house to console the family members.
While there was no information about his younger brother Mallojula Venugopal alias Bhupati who is hiding in Chhattisgarh, his elder brother Anjaneyulu, a retired cooperative bank employee, was in deep shock. “ It appears to be a fake encounter, as no policemen were injured. I request the government to send his body back to the village so that we can perform the last rites according to our traditions,” he said.