Deadline over, fate of DC unknown

Apr 26, 2012 - Rabindra Nath Choudhury |

Age Correspondent

Raipur

The deadline set by the Maoists for the government to concede their demands in exchange of freedom of the abducted Sukma district collector Alex Paul Menon, held hostage by them since April 21, expired on Wednesday evening even as his kin and the state administration waited anxiously to know about his well-being.
Although top level police officers here remained tight-lipped, refusing to share any information with media on the abducted collector, unconfirmed reports reaching from the ground zero said a jan adalat (people’s court) was held by Maoists on Wednesday evening at hill side village of Nagaram under Ganguda in Sukma district to decide his fate and if the deadline could be extended.
“We are waiting for return of Manish Kunjam, who had set out for Tadmetla in Dantewada district on Tuesday to deliver the medicine kits for the ailing district magistrate, a asthma patient. We have information that he was returning after meeting top Naxal leaders at an undisclosed place in Chintagufa area in Dantewada district late on Tuesday night. He was expected at Sukma late on Wednesday evening. Till then, we will not be able to say anything,” a senior police officer told this newspaper here.
The DM’s wife, Asha Menon, also waited with bated breath to hear a few words from Mr Kunjam about her husband’s well-being in Maoist custody when he returns to Sukma, sources close to her said.
Meanwhile, uncertain prevailed over when and where parleys between mediators of Maoists and Chhattisgarh government will be held.
While Maoist-appointed interlocutors, B.D. Sharma and Hyderabad-based emeritus professor G. Hargopal, who came into scene late on Tuesday night, are scheduled to arrive at Raipur on Thursday, the state government-sponsored mediators — retired bureaucrats S.K. Mishra and Nirmala Buch began confabulations with chief minister Raman Singh and senior officers here to assess the situation.
“I am hopeful of an early resolution of hostage crisis,” Ms Buch told reporters here on her arrival from Bhopal in the morning.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/146372" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-22c6aabcac3874dcee2b5512e0de558e" value="form-22c6aabcac3874dcee2b5512e0de558e" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="86420004" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>