UN Behera

Bhubaneswar, May 21: The Odisha government today said steps were being taken for the release of Maoists and their sympathisers as agreed while negotiating for the release of the hostages a few months ago.

Home secretary U.N. Behera’s statement on the issue, apparently provoked by state organising secretary of the CPI (Maoist) Sabyasachi Panda’s tirade against the government, coincided with chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s fresh appeal to the rebels to return to the mainstream.

“I appeal again to my misguided young brothers and sisters who have gone to the Maoist cause, to the law of the jungle, to return to the mainstream, the law of the land,” said Naveen before leaving for Delhi en route to London for an eight-day trip to the United Kingdom.

On the other hand, the two Maoist-chosen interlocutors who negotiated during the release of the Italian nationals kidnapped by Panda in March, have in a letter criticised the government for mounting operations against the rebels without provocation.

Replying to Panda’s charge made in an audio-message yesterday that the government had gone back on the promises made at the time of the release of the hostages, the home secretary said that of the five persons whose release the abductors of the two Italian nationals had demanded, Subhashree Das alias Mili had already been acquitted in one of the cases against her. While no fresh cases have been brought against Mili, the wife of Panda, two cases were still pending against her in Nayagarh, the home secretary said.

Another rebel leader, Arati Majhi, whose release was sought by the Maoists, had been acquitted in one case and granted bail in another but in three cases her bail had been rejected. “She can approach the next higher forum in these three cases. In one case the bail is under consideration,” said Behera.

The home secretary said that in the case of Suka Nachika, Chakra Tadingi and Bijay Tadingi, the three other radicals whose release the Maoists led by Panda had sought, the bail had been rejected by a local court in Berhampur but they were free to approach the higher court.

Referring to the cases relating to 22 persons whose release the abductors of ruling BJD MLA Jhina Hikaka had sought, the home secretary said that while four of them had been released, another three would be set free on production of bailers. “Bail has been rejected in eight cases. They can approach the next higher court in appeal. The remaining eight have not filed their bail petitions,” he said.

Behera also accused the Maoists of indulging in violence and killing one person in Malkangiri district on May 19. Stating that the government would do its best to maintain law and order, the home secretary called upon the rebels to shun violence and return to the mainstream.

However, B.D. Sharma and Dandapani Mohanty, the two Maoist-chosen interlocutors, pulled no punches in their letter addressed to the home secretary and two other senior bureaucrats who were part of the government team that negotiated with them to bring the hostage crisis to an end in April. They said that though the Maoists had stuck to the ceasefire promised by them, the state forces had been raiding their forest hideouts.