Cops copy Maoist pressure tactics

The people of Lalgrah were used to posters by Maoists, sometimes plastered on walls threatening someone or at times stuck on a dead body proclaiming death sentence by their kangaroo court.

The table has now turned with the police resorting to the same method of fixing posters in different parts of Lalgarh, advising the Maoists to return to “mainstream” life.

In a very surprising development, the district police have fixed up posters of seven major Maoist leaders — Suchitra Mahato @ Jharna, Mansaram Hembram @ Singrai Tudu @ Bikash, Tara, Ashim Mandal @ Akash, Madan Mahato, Jayanta and Ranjan Munda who are out of the police net and still operative in different places of Junglemahal advising them to come back to the main stream of life.

The posters with photos of different rebel leaders said in Bengali “apnar mato anekei banduk chere samajer mulshtore fire eseche. apnio fire asun” (Many like you have left guns and returned to normal life. You also come back).

The posters are very carefully designed. Every poster has the photo of the single leader with the details of his of crime, his residential location and his area of operation. Each poster contains a phone number — 7407091122 — so that the willing Maoist can contact the police directly.

For example in poster along with the photograph of Suchitra Mahato the details of her crime committed, her residential location and her place of operation have been mentioned. Mahato allegedly was wounded in the encounter where the joint forces
killed Maoist politburo leader Kishenji. She is missing since then.

“We are trying to uproot the Maoist problem and so we have given the posters. We want all the people who had deviated from the main stream of life to come back and start their life afresh,” Jhargram Superintendent of Police Gourav Sharma told Deccan
Herald over phone.

However, sources in the police said this is a strategy devised to put the rebels under pressure. By displaying the photographs along with the phone number, the police allowed the people an access so that they can inform the police about the whereabouts of these most wanted Maoists.

“Today we have given posters in some areas but we have decided to give posters in all the area of the Junglemahal so that these people actually can understand that we are really serious enough to bring them back to life,” IG (Western Range) Gangeshwar Singh told Deccan Herald over phone.