A policeman in plain clothes tears up some of the posters from the walls of the court. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, June 12: Police and district administration were caught on the wrong foot after hundreds of Maoist posters appeared on the walls of various government offices here this morning.

The posters that primarily demanded the release of CPI (Maoist) leader Animesh Chakraborty, currently lodged in the district jail here, had been put up on the walls of the district collectorate, the office of the superintendent of police and the district court.

“The posters basically demanded the release of arrested Maoist leaders,” said Malda district superintendent of police Dilip Mondal. There was no threat in any of them, he added.

Policemen pulled down the posters around 12 noon at the instance of district magistrate Chittaranjan Das. The district authorities were tight-lipped about who could have put up the posters.

However, Chakraborty, who was to be produced in court today, was not taken out of the jail hospital on “health grounds”.

Chakraborty landed in hospital after a clash between the jail warders and inmates on June 2. Eight persons, including the Maoist leader, sustained serious injuries in the scuffle. He has been staying in the hospital since then under tight security. Some of the posters also demanded exemplary punishment for the jail officials allegedly involved in the incident.

Members of the Bandi Mukti Committee today demonstrated in front of the district collectorate demanding the release of undertrial Maoist activists. The district authorities took no chances. A huge police contingent was deployed to keep the demonstrators at bay.

State secretary of the committee Saroj Ghosh and district leader Jyotsna Roy criticised the way the government has been keeping Chakraborty behind the bars without trial for the past two-and-a-half years.