Unclaimed Maoist literature found, Chhattisgarh begins probe

RAIPUR - A probe was launched Friday into unclaimed cartons of Maoist literature found at the Raipur railway station’s parcel warehouse that has vital details about key Maoist leaders, police said.

Railway officials spotted two unclaimed cartons belonging to the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) during “a clean-up of old and unclaimed delivery lying in the parcel godown”. The cartons were found to contain Maoist literature and this was reported to the police Friday, sources at the police headquarters said.

“Police have stepped in to probe on an urgent basis as one of the articles in a Maoist magazine contains a list of Maoist leaders killed since 2004 in fights with the police,” Chhattisgarh Director General of Police Vishwaranjan told IANS.

“The literature was dispatched about six-seven months back from Bihar’s capital Patna and was addressed to a Raipur resident but somehow it was found lying in a parcel room at Raipur railway station,” he said.

“All the unclaimed literature has a lot of specific details about several Maoist leaders…we are going through the literature and can’t share much details with the media now,” the police chief added.

The source at the police headquarters added: “It seems the consignment was sent to a wrong address, but nothing can be said with certainty till police complete the investigation.”

“But the literature was surely part of the exchange of major Maoist documents between two key persons or groups being very much part of the Maoists’ urban network.”

Chhattisgarh is one of the states worst hit by the Leftist insurgency. The rebels have been running a parallel government for about three decades in the Bastar region, the state’s southern mineral-rich forested tip, and have ringed their hideouts with landmines.