Maoist refuses to extend deadline

     Raipur, April 27, 2012: Maoists today refused to extend the deadline set by them to fulfill certain conditions to secure the release of the Sukma District Collector Alex V F Paul Menon V, who was abducted by the Maoists on April 21.

     “How can we take a decision to extend the deadline when the Chhattisgarh Government is silent on our demands,” Secretary of South Bastar Divisional Committee of the CPI (Maoist) Vijay Madkam said in a statement to the BBC.

     Let the government clear its stand first and them the Maoists would take a decision, the statement said.

     The Maoists also clarified that they had not received any direct communication from the state government to extend the deadline and said they read that in the media.

     A day after his kidnap on gun point, the Maoists on April 22, last asked the Chhattisgarh government to fulfill by April 25, its demands to secure the release of Menon.

     “The fate of the Collector would be decided at a Jan Adalat (People’s court) if the Raman Singh Government will not fulfill the demands by April 25,” Secretary of South Bastar Divisional Committee of the CPI (Maoists) Vijay Madkam in a pre-recorded statement to the BBC had said.

     The Maoist leader said if the state government wanted the release of the ‘arrested’ Collector then the Government should immediately halt the Operation Green Hunt.

     Operation Green Hunt be stopped immediately, joint search by the police, combing operation be halt and the forces be confined to the barracks only, the statement reportedly said.

     False cases be dropped against hundreds of innocent villagers, who are currently lodged in Dantewada and Raipur jails, it said.

     They also demanded release of “innocent tribals Kartam Joga, Vijay Sodhi, Sannu Mandavi, Sudru Kunjam, Lala Kunjam, who have been falsely implicated” in the case of attack on the house of a Congress leader at Kuakonda and lodged in Dantewada and Jagdalpur jails. Besides them, Rajesh Nayak Banjara of Village Gorgonda and Mandavi Dula of Village Burkapal have to be released, they added.

     The Maoists have also forwarded names of some of their prominent leaders like Madkam Gopanna (Satyam Reddy), Nirmalakka (C. Vijayakshmi), Jaypal (Chandrasekhar Reddy), Malti (Shanti Priya Reddy), Meena Choudhury, Korsa Sanni (village Murunga, block Bijapur), Madkam Sanni (village Darbhaguda, block Konta, Dist Sukma) and demanded dismissal of cases against them and they should be released along with senior journalist P K Jha and Asit Kumar Sen for the release of the Collector Sukma.