Naxal leader detained by ‘colleagues’

Key Naxal leader Vinod, said to have played a key role in the 2013 Maoist ambush on the Congress convoy at Jiram Ghati in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district in which 32 people were massacred, is believed to have been taken hostage by his colleagues.

Mr Vinod, who heads Kanger valley area committee, a deadly unit of CPI (Maoist) functioning in Darbha region in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh, has been kept under 24-hour-vigil by red cadres in a Naxal camp in the jungle under Darbha area, when the local Maoist leadership got a wind of his apparent bid to surrender before the police to get medical treatment, intelligence sources told this newspaper on Thursday.

He was said to have been grievously wounded in the encounter with security forces at Chandameta in Bastar district on October 8, but could manage to flee the spot with the help of his colleagues.

“Body of a woman Maoist, a local guerrilla squad commander, was recovered at the encounter site at Chandameta. Vinod had received bullets in his legs in the encounter, but was helped out of the face-off site by his colleagues.”

He is a diabetic and his wounds have aggravated owing to the lack of medical treatment. He wanted to surrender before the police to get medical aid. But he has been held hostage by the red cadres at the behest of zonal committee commander Pankaj Illyus, aka Shyam Das, to foil any bid by him to flee and surrender before the police,” sources in state Intelligence Bureau said.

When contacted Bastar district superintendent of police Rajendra Narayan Das said, “We have received reports of Naxal leader Vinod being held hostage by red cadres in injured condition.”

He however declined to comment on the reports that the Maoist leader was in touch with the police for surrender.