The Hindu : National : Maoist leader 'arrested' in Chhattisgarh

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Friday, Dec 30, 2005

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National

Maoist leader 'arrested' in Chhattisgarh

Siddharth Varadarajan

Safeguard human rights of arrested person, says PUCL

New Delhi: Following the "disappearance" from Raipur on Wednesday night of a senior leader of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), civil liberties organisations in Chhattisgarh and Delhi fear that he might have been arrested by the police and that his life may be at risk as a result.

In a press statement on Thursday, the Chhattisgarh Peoples Union for Civil Liberties said it had received a letter from the secretary of the Chhattisgarh State Committee, CPI (Maoist) alleging that a senior leader and member of its Central Committee had "suddenly disappeared" on the evening of December 28. The leader, 67-year-old Prasad, a.k.a. Bijoy, had come to Raipur for medical treatment.

The Maoist organisation said there was "a strong possibility" that he had been apprehended by the police and put under arrest.

The PUCL stated that in the event of arrest, "given the fact that this has been kept secret, there is a serious threat to the life of the arrested person". The civil liberties organisation added that it was bringing this incident to the notice of the public and the State authorities "to safeguard the human rights of the arrested person".

In a separate statement, the Peoples Union for Democratic Rights, Delhi (PUDR) said it feared for the life of the Maoist Central Committee member "given the lawlessness with which State forces have been conducting themselves in anti-naxalite operations in Chhattisgarh". It demanded that the State authorities "immediately announce and formally arrest" the missing leader.

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