Maoists set dead line of April 25 to fulfill conditions for release of DM Menon

     Raipur, April 22, 2012: A day after his kidnap on gun point, the Maoists today asked the Chhattisgarh government to fulfill by April 25, its demands to secure the release of Sukma Collector Alex V F Paul Menon V.

     “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 said.

     In a pre-recorded statement to the BBC Raipur Correspondent Salman Ravi, the Maoist leader late evening today 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.

     The Maoists have set the dead line as April 25, 2012.

     When the 2006-batch IAS officer was on a tour of the Majhipara area in Sukma District during Gram Suraj Abhiyan yesterday, he was confronted by the Maoists guerrilla and after exchange of fire, the civil servant was kidnapped by Maoists after killing both his body guards.