Ekka: Understrict vigil

Ranchi, March 4: The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) today launched an offensive to get the five Independent legislators ?released from captivity? in spite of the MLAs declaring on television that they had voluntarily extended support to the NDA.

A senior minister, on strict condition of anonymity, claimed that Congress units in Rajasthan had been requested to ?rescue? the abducted legislators.

Jharkhand Party president N.E. Horo accused the executive president of his party, Ranvijay Nath Shahdeo, a senior vice-president, Lal Vijay Nath Shahdeo, and a deputy general secretary, Ashok Bhagat, of being ?BJP agents? who masterminded the abduction of Kolebira legislator Enos Ekka.

It was Ranvijay Shahdeo, he clarified, who wrote to the governor withdrawing support from the UPA and not he. A ?criminal Tilkeshwar Sahu? in the BJP camp, he said, had abducted Ekka in a government helicopter and taken him to Arjun Munda.

He conceded that Ekka had called him even from Delhi, apologised for his move and even sought his blessings. Horo also agreed that he cannot take any legal step against Ekka since Jharkhand Party is not a recognised party in the state. ?But I will appeal to him to reconsider his stand on moral grounds; we cannot support a party which acts against Muslims and Christians,? he added.

The chief minister also sang the same tune in Giridih. ?Family members of the abducted legislators are crying here and some have even complained to the police,? he declared at a news conference.

Ekka?s in-laws, residing in sector-II of HEC complex, however, rebutted the claim. The legislator?s father-in-law, N. Bara, said no FIR has been lodged by them and the family members have spoken to Ekka and are confident that he is safe and is being taken care of.

Bara?s son, Hemant, claimed that he had met Ekka last on the night of March 2. ?Neither he nor my sister complained,? he recalls. ?My son-in-law is not a child that he can be detained against his will,? said Bara. He has been speaking to his daughter and also to Ekka?s parents and they too had not complained of Ekka having been kidnapped.

The ?kidnapping mystery? has acquired a fresh twist with the revelation that on March 1 itself Horo had written to the governor complaining that Ekka was under illegal detention in the chief minister?s residence. The governor apparently directed the letter to be forwarded to the chief secretary and the director-general of police with oral instructions to rescue Ekka.

Strangely, Ekka, along with other Independent legislators, called on the governor on March 1 itself and thereafter on March 2 as well. But presumably he could not be rescued because he was in a group and also because of the presence of the media.