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Though the CRPF was able to recover only Tudu’s body, they claimed that two more Maoists, Suchitra Murmu and Yuvraj Murmu, were killed in the encounter.
According to intelligence sources, the Maoists were able to take away the bodies of their two comrades. “One of them
Suchitra Murmu was a member of Maoists’ Salboni squad and was a close associate of Tara, the senior leader of the regional committee of CPI(Maoists),” said an IB official.
According to the official, Yuvraj Tudu had conducted the recce of the Silda EFR camp and was a member of the Lalgarh squad.
But members of rights organisation like Association for Protection of Democratic Rights, Bandi Mukti Committee and the CPI(ML) claim that Tudu and the two others were not Maoists but tribal leaders.
According to them, Tudu was the senior most leader in the PCAPA after Chhatradhar Mahato. He had visited Kolkata several times and even met Chief Electoral Officer Debashis Sen ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
After the police started coming down heavily on the PCAPA activists in the last couple of months, all the leaders of the PCAPA went underground, they said as they protested in Kolkata against the killings.
“There was no exchange of fire between CRPF and any other person in Kantapahari. The joint forces entered the house of Lalmohan Tudu around 11 pm while he was preparing to go to bed. He was killed along with his other two relatives, Yubaraj Murmu and his wife Suchitra Murmu. They were killed in front of his mother, wife and only daughter who is appearing for the Madhyamik exam,” said Chhoton Das, secretary of Bandi Mukti Committee.
“We will file cases against the police in this case. It was a case of fake encounter,” added Das.
But the CRPF has rejected the allegation. Nageswar Rao, IG, CRPF said there was specific intelligence input that Lalmohan Tudu and other two wanted Maoists will be visiting their native places late on Monday night. “It was an encounter. We have a very transparent system and stringent mechanism in place,’ said Rao.
According to him, around 10 pm, when CRPF team spotted Lalmohan Tudu and tried to stop him, they started firing from several sides. “Our forces retaliated after which three of them were reportedly gunned down,” added Rao.
The state government has also termed the allegations of fake encounter as baseless. “Many things will be said and many things will be written but we are not bothered,” a visibly angry state Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen said.
Director General of Police Bhupinder Singh also came out in defence and said all the three killed had several cases pending against them.
“We have reports that they (Maoists) opened fire at the CRPF when the latter tried to nab them. After they opened fire, the CRPF retaliated and they were killed,” Singh added.
Buddha meets Governor again
For the second time in this month, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee met Governor M K Narayanan at Raj Bhavan on Tuesday. The meeting lasted an for anhour. Attack at Silda EFR camp, the growing Maoist menace in the state and the agitation in Darjeeling Hills may be some of the topics discussed in today’s meeting, said sources. Narayanan, a former national security adviser to the Prime Minister, showed grave concern after the attack and issued a stern statement condemning it, saying that the government should do everything to crush the menace.
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Few self appointed 'human rights activists' are working for Maoists under veil and they are very active in collecting funds,co-ordinating Maoists movements among different districts,providing safe shelters for this terrorist outfit and more dangerously got the support of Trinamool Congress -a constituent of central govt. cause its leader wants to come to power in West Bengal by any means. At Nandigram and Singur Maoists helped Mamata Banerjee with their arms and explosives to organise a violent anti-development movement which eventually drove away Tata Motors Nano Factory from West Bengal. Union Govt.must take a stern measure to arrest these Maoists sister organisations who are active in Bengal in disguise of NGOs.