Alok Raj

Calcutta, May 11: Alok Raj still cannot fathom why things are so difficult in Nandigram.

The man who has spent over a month in this nook of Bengal since November and has been feted twice for outstanding service by the CRPF director-general in the past two years is still trying to figure out ways to bypass the hurdles in his path here.

“The MP here (Lakshman Seth) told me not to come out of our camps and I was shocked. I told him, ‘Sir I can’t take orders from you. I know my job’,” the CRPF deputy inspector-general said.

The allegation about misbehaving with women, he said, was “so ridiculous”.

“This is an age of scientific investigation and what happens if these women are put through lie-detector or narco tests? I won’t take anything lying down. Let the police arrest me if they want to,” Raj fumed.

A gold medallist in geology from Patna Science College, he sounded disturbed about the charges levelled against him in Nandigram today. “Can anyone ask these women what Alok Raj looks like? What his height is? I am prepared to go to the Supreme Court if required.”

For the IPS officer of the 1989 batch, visiting trouble torn areas has been the name of the game since he joined the service as Patna additional superintendent of police in 1991.

The next year, he shot down four dreaded criminals and was awarded the gallantry medal in 1994. A decade on, he joined the CRPF on deputation to head the anti-Naxalite operations in Bihar and Jharkhand.

“My job has taken me to different terrain where life is very difficult and you have to deliver in extreme situations. But Nandigram appears to be tougher. Things were really in a mess when we came down last year and, now, even after so many months, I still see many of the persons named in FIRs roaming free,” Raj said.

He feels the “situation has surely changed for the better” in the past few months. “But policing obviously was not up to the mark here.”

Having won the prestigious police medal for meritorious service in January this year, Raj is gradually learning to handle controversy in a politically charged atmosphere.

“Last November, there was opposition to our move to set up camps in pockets of Nandigram and Khejuri where we felt it was absolutely necessary. The administration had refused to hand over the list of most wanted criminals in some areas,” said Raj.

“This time, they are asking us to stay put and slap baseless allegations on us.”