Bhubaneswar, June 30: Legal hurdles made short work of the state government’s resolve to honour its agreement with the Maoist-chosen interlocutors as a local court in Koraput today refused to withdraw charges against top rebel leader Ghanti Prasad.

The release of five Maoist leaders including Prasad was part of the 14-point agreement worked out between the government and the three interlocutors paving the way for the release of former Malkangiri collector R. Vineel Krishna, who was kidnapped by the rebels on February 16. Prasad had played an important role in negotiating Krishna’s release.

The development coincided with a statewide shutdown called by the Maoists to protest against “illegal” arrest of their cadres and forcible acquisition of land for the 12-million-tonne Posco project.

In a related development, surrendered Maoist commander, Duna Keshav Rao alias Azad was produced in the court of sub-divisional judicial magistrate (SDJM), Nayagarh, and remanded to 14 days in judicial custody.

Maoists had set the June 30 as deadline for the withdrawal of charges against Prasad. However, the SDJM, Koraput, rejected the state’s plea for withdrawal of the case against the rebel leader in the Semiliguda police station on technical grounds. The court maintained that the public prosecutor did not have the authority to move the withdrawal application as he was conducting the case.

Charges against four other Maoists — Andaluri Eswari, Roja Madingi alias Puni alias Sarita, Kendula Sirisha alias Padma alias Nirmala and Gokul Kuldipia — had been withdrawn in the same case in the court of the district and sessions judge, Jeypore, on June 21. However, judgment on a similar application for withdrawal of charges against Ganti Prasad in the Koraput SDJM’s court had been deferred to June 30 as the rebel leader was lodged in a jail in Andhra Pradesh and shifting him to Koraput would have taken time.

Prasad and the four others had been arrested in Semiliguda area of Koraput on November 13 last year while they were on their way to meet the elusive rebel commander Ramakrishna, the husband of Padma, in Narayanpatna. Though Prasad had been granted conditional bail in February by Orissa High Court, he was not satisfied and stayed put in jail.

Though the court’s decision had stalled the release of Prasad, Dandapani Mohanty, one of the three interlocutors, who had negotiated K rishna’s release with the government, hoped that the issue would be sorted out soon.