WB ready to negotiate for abducted cop’s release

A day after Tuesday’s Maoist attack at Sankrail police station in Bengal’s West Midnapore district, the fate of station-in-charge Atin Dutta, who was abducted by the extremists, remains uncertain. Two policemen were killed in the attack.

Maoist leader Koteshwar Rao alias Kishanji told select mediapersons from an underground location that Dutta will be allowed to go only if the state police released their arrested comrades, especially Chatradhar Mahato, leader of the Lalgarh Committee For Resistance Against Police Atrocities.

Kishanji also spoke over phone to Dutta’s wife Indrani and father Ashoke on Tuesday. Kishanji asked Indrani to persuade West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to release the arrested Maoists.

Indrani, her two-year old daughter Oindrakshi and Ashok met the chief minister on Wednesday and conveyed Kishanji’s message. Bhattacharjee assured them that the state government’s priority was to release Dutta from the clutches of the Maoists. But he told her that the state government will not take any hasty step that will threaten the life of her husband.

Chief secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty said, “The government is ready to hold negotiations with the Maoists if they give any concrete proposal. But all their conditions as told to the media cannot be accepted.”

Later, Kishanji told reporters that Dutta will be presented before the media in a day or two. “We will allow one member of the Dutta family to meet him,” Kishanji said. He ruled out any immediate possibility of his release. “Let them release our women comrades in the first phase. Till that happens, Dutta cannot be released.”

Meanwhile, the tragedy has put a question mark on the credibility of a section of Bengal intellectuals, who are otherwise vocal about cases of human rights violation by the men-in-uniform. Even 24 hours after the tragedy, not one intellectual has condemned the incident. The same intellectuals had protested the arrest of Maoist leader Mahato.