Kishenji alive and fit, reveal arrested Maoist leaders

KOLKATA - Ending the confusion over elusive top Maoist leader Kishenji’s health, arrested rebel leaders have revealed he is alive and fully fit, police said Sunday.

“During interrogation, Sudip Chongdar alias Kanchan, the state committee secretary of Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) and other state committee members arrested Friday, have revealed that Koteshwar Rao alias Kishenji, the chief of party’s military wing - Peoples Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) is alive and fit,” said police’s Special Task Force (STF) chief Rajeev Kumar.

“Denying Kishenji was injured during the gun battle with the joint forces in Hathilot forest of West Midnapore district March 25, Kanchan said that he is now in Dandakaranya of Chhattisgarh to attend a party programme, since the last 15 days. All the other arrested leaders said the same,” he said.

Noting police was yet to verify all their statements and the information they had revealed so far, Rajeev Kumar said that so far the arrested Maoist leaders were cooperating and even guided police to their hideouts in adjacent districts.

“Unless we round up their associates or unearth their hideouts, we can not confirm whether they are making correct statements or not,” he said.

He said that the police were yet to check all the ammunition, sophisticated communications devices and other materials recovered during raids from their hideouts and had not even checked the documents seized from them properly.

“But during preliminary investigation we came to know that they had established practical relations with other like-minded organisations in northeastern states.”

“They maintained good relations with Manipur based People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) for last eight months. Apart from exchanging arms and ammunition, they used to jointly organise arms training programmes. In several cases, PREPAK activists visited remote, forested areas of Jharkhand to impart arms training to the Maoist cadres. The rebels were also holding talks with two others organisations of that area,” said Rajeev Kumar.

He said the interrogation further revealed that there was no rift between the state committee members and Kishenji.

“Kanchan and his associates confessed that they still used to work under the instruction of Kishenji.”