Thank you Mediators, CM: Collector Menon

Sukma, May 03, 2012: After staying with Maoists for 12 days, Sukma District Collector Alex V F Paul Menon V today thanked the mediators and the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh for his release from the rebels, who had kidnapped him on April 21.

"I would like to thank mediators from both the sides, the (state) Chief Minister, Chief Secretary, friends and family members, who supported me during this tough time," Menon told reporters at Tadmetla.

In motorcycles Menon, Dr Brahma Dev Sharma and Prof G Haragopal, both the Maoists interlocutors, reached Tadmetla from the den of Maoists and had a brief interaction with the journalists.

Although the 2006-batch IAS officer said "I am OK" but he was looking visibly tired, standing next to Sharma, also a former IAS officer.

Menon would be spending the night at Chintalnar CRPF camp with others, since the helicopter could not take off due to evening darkness.

When Menon was on a tour of the Majhipara area in Sukma District on April 21 during Gram Suraj Abhiyan, he was confronted by the Maoist guerrillas and after exchange of fire, the civil servant was kidnapped by Maoists after killing both his body guards.

For his release both the Government interlocutors Nirmala Buch and Suyogya Kumar Misra had signed an agreement with their Maoists counterpart Sharma and Haragopal, in which principal Secretary Home N K Aswal has been made a witness from the state government side.

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