Patna, June 13: The Union home ministry has sought a detailed report from the Bihar government on the circumstances leading to the grant of bail to top Maoist leaders Varanasi Subramanian, Vijay Kumar Arya and Pulendu Shekhar Mukherjee.
While Arya and Subramanian, both central committee members of the banned CPI (Maoist), are lodged in Bhagalpur special central jail, Mukherjee is lodged in a high-security prison in Chhattisgarh.
Subramanian is a resident of Andhra Pradesh, while Mukherjee is from Bengal. Arya is a resident of Gaya district in Bihar. Sources in the home department said the trio were granted bail by the Patna high court in April this year. Subsequently, a fast track court in Katihar accepted their bail on May 26 and issued their release order after the three furnished their bail bonds.
Describing their release as a “severe jolt” to the investigating agency, the Union home ministry shot off a letter in the last week of May, seeking an explanation from the Bihar government about the circumstances leading to the release order of the three senior CPI(Maoist) leaders.
The letter also sought details of the cases pending against these leaders in the state.
A senior police officer under the cover of anonymity said, “The details of the cases against the three top Maoist leaders, who, along with four others, were caught from Katihar’s Barsoi district on April 29 last year had been sought by five Maoist-hit states, including Bihar. The three Maoist leaders were arrested following a tip-off given by the central investigating agency.”
The other states from where the home ministry has sought reports about the Maoist “think tanks” are Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Bengal.
The leaders have been charged with sedition and waging a war against the Union government.
Sources said the state police headquarters had earlier sought reports from the superintendents of Katihar, Gaya, Jehanabad, Aurangabad and Bhagalpur districts on their involvement in Maoist-related incidents and cases pending against them in respective districts.
All senior police officers were tight-lipped over the release order of the three Maoist leaders, whose arrest was termed as the biggest achievement for the state police in particular and the security personnel across the country in general.
“Let me first inquire into the matter,” additional director general of police (headquarters) Ravinder Kumar said.
Even the prison department officials were reluctant to talk on the issue. “I will try to find it out. It has come to my notice from you. I will get the matter inquired and appropriate action will be taken,” inspector general (prisons) Anand Kishore said.
The alleged reluctant attitude of the jail authorities to release the Maoist leaders has stirred up a controversy.
Former MLA and chairman of Political Prisoners’ Release Committee Ramadhar Singh said, “When the court has ordered to release the three leaders, there is no point to keep them in judicial custody. It is a simple case of illegal detention.”
Singh, said to be the founder of Left wing extremism in central Bihar, said the committee would take up the matter in the high court.
“It amounts to violation of the order of the court of law,” he said, adding that if other cases were pending against them (leaders), they should be produced in the court concerned.
For example, there were eight other cases pending against Arya in Gayadistrict and one in Andhra Pradesh. “If he (Arya) is wanted in any case in Gaya, he should have been shifted to Gaya central jail and not kept in Bhagalpur central jail so that he could be produced in court on a regular basis,” he said.
Singh said in the past one year, Arya has been produced in court for four times only.
