New Delhi, May 25: The Maoists listened in to a wireless set lost by the CRPF patrol party in Dantewada to plan their ambush on April 6 that led to the massacre of 76 personnel of the paramilitary force.
This has been revealed during the interrogation of a 23-year-old Maoist commander, Barsa Lakhma, who was arrested along with five of his comrades by the Chhattisgarh Police for their involvement in the audacious Dantewada massacre.
“We arrested six persons, including Lakhma, on Sunday night from near Chintalnar,” superintendent of police Amresh Mishra said.
Lakhma has reportedly told his interrogators that the Maoist cadre were keeping an eye on the CRPF Chintalnar camp since April 4 and tracked the movements of the CRPF patrol party in Mukram village where the jawans had asked for a goat and utensils from local villagers to prepare their meals.
“We were told by our informer that the force left Mukram village for Tadmatela but they were looking for something. The force spotted us and moved towards Chintalnar. After they left, we conducted a search and found a wireless set through which we tracked the movement of the CRPF personnel,” states the interrogation report of Lakhma.
Lakhma added the wireless messages received on the set on April 5 indicated that the CRPF party would return to Tadmatela to look for the wireless set.
“ On learning this, we sent a message to the rest of the ‘ military company and militia’ — around 200- 250 cadre — to assemble at the village on the night of April 5.
We kept on listening to the wireless set and around 4 am on April 6, the messages indicated that the patrol party was coming to Tadmatela to look for the wireless set. Around 5 am, our informer confirmed the CRPF party was coming this way and an ambush was set up. We fired at them from all four sides to kill many of them,” the report says.
Lakhma said the CRPF men returned fire for almost 90 minutes. “ When the firing stopped, we killed the injured CRPF men and looted their weapons, wireless sets, shoes, ammunition, medicines, grenades, wallets, cellphones and watches. As we were about to return, we learnt that another CRPF party was coming from two sides.
Later, ‘ commander’ Papa Rao came to our village and told us in detail about our success and asked us to be ready for the fight ahead,” the interrogation report states.
After the incident, these six Maoists had given a detailed de- briefing to their leaders Ramanna and Papa Rao during which the complacency of the CRPF personnel was also discussed, the interrogation report states.
The other Maoists arrested by the Chhattisgarh Police along with Lakhma are Oyam Hidma, Podiyami Hidma, Kawasi Budra, Oya Ganga and Dura Joga.
They were arrested from Minapa village, five km from Tadmetla.
The arrest of the Maoists comes close on the heels of the Centre’s decision to shunt three top CRPF officers, including deputy inspector general Nalin Prabhat, the commandant of 62 battalion and an inspector over the April 6 massacre.
Superintendent of police Mishra and inspector general T. J. Long Kumer of the Chhattisgarh Police have also been recommended for transfer in the wake of the E. R. Rammohan report, which allegedly blamed them for not properly planning the area- domination exercise.
However, there was no mention of DIG Kallauri who was present at all operational meetings. According to the probe, the 81- member CRPF team along with a police head constable did not leave for the mission on April 4 at the time mentioned in the log book.
—Agencies