Purulia, March 16: Over 80 inmates in a Purulia district jail, arrested either on the suspicion of being Maoists or having links with them, today began an indefinite hunger strike to protest the delay in disposal of their cases.

A senior official in the state prison directorate said 83 suspected Maoists were on hunger strike at the Purulia Correctional Home.

A jail source said Biswanath Chowdhury, the state minister for jails and social welfare had asked the prison officials to persuade the undertrials to call off their agitation. “But so far, the 83 people have stuck to their hunger strike,” said a jail official.

Purulia district magistrate Avanindra Singh said some other inmates had joined the 83 in fasting but he did not give any numbers.

Ravishankar Tripathi, secretary of the Purulia Bar Association, said the suspected Maoists were protesting the “delays in disposal of their cases and the repeated rejection of their bail pleas”.

Nandulal Singhania, a lawyer, cited the case of Pelaram Soren (case 29 of October 2009). He had been arrested in connection with the murder of a CPM leader in Arsa, Purulia, but no chargesheet has been filed though 90 days have already passed.

Panchayats

A total of 53 gram panchayats in West Midnapore have stopped functioning because of Maoist activities in the district, panchayat minister Anisur Rahman told the Assembly today.

His remark was in contrast with what the chief minister said yesterday in reply to a question from Congress Legislature Party leader Manas Bhuniya. When Bhuniya said schools, colleges, ration shops and panchayat offices were not functioning in West Midnapore, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said things were normal.