Purulia, July 16: Bengal police last night fought their first gun battle with the Maoists since Mamata Banerjee became chief minister, rescuing the abducted husband of a Congress panchayat chief from a Purulia village.
Although both the Maoists and police agree that an unofficial ceasefire has been in place for the past two months, the encounter suggests the chief minister is willing to act against the rebels in law-and-order situations.
A senior police officer confirmed that Writers' Buildings was consulted before 50 state armed police (SAP) commandos were sent after the Maoists in Baku village. He said the unofficial truce did not mean the rebels "could get away with murder".
The 10-minute gunfight ended with the outnumbered rebels running away, leaving behind hostage Lakshmikanta Mahato, 52, whose wife Menoka is sabhapati of the Congress-run Jhalda block II panchayat samiti.
One villager died in the crossfire while sub-inspector Rajat Chowdhury, who led the commandos, was admitted to a Ranchi hospital with a bullet in the stomach.
Hours before the encounter, Maoist leader Bikram had claimed in a statement that the rebels were observing a ceasefire in a show of goodwill for the new government.
"We too haven't been carrying out the regular anti-Maoist operations like we used to under the previous government," a senior officer said today.
"But this was a law-and-order situation. We couldn't just sit back and watch; we had to try and rescue the hostage."
Seven rebels had abducted Lakshmikanta and aide Biresh Mahato, 42, around 4.30pm on Thursday after stopping the car in which they and Menoka were returning home to Hartan, 55km from Purulia town. The hostages were taken to nearby Kodamgora.
Biresh was freed the same night after his family paid the Rs 20,000 ransom. For Lakshmikanta, the rebels demanded Rs 12 lakh which Menoka brought down to Rs 1.5 lakh by Friday afternoon after phone negotiations.
That evening, she informed police and sent villagers Ashwini Mahato, 32, and Gadadhar Mahato, 42, with the ransom to the Maoists, who had shifted to Baku. The commandos followed Ashwini and Gadadhar.
Ashwini handed the money over as the police watched from behind trees. The rebels had kept Lakshmikanta hidden behind a clump of bushes.
Suddenly, one of the Maoists spotted the commandos, shouted "Police!" and blew a whistle, said eyewitness Ananta Singh, a Baku shopkeeper. "Then the firing started from both sides," Singh said. A stray bullet killed Ashwini.
The Maoists fled into the deep jungles. A search of the forests this morning did not reveal whether any of the rebels was injured.
Lakshmikanta said he was "tortured" through Thursday and Friday. "I was not offered food, not even drinking water."
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