MAC denies receiving state input before Maoist attack

The Multi Agency Centre (MAC), an intelligence unit that receives and collates inputs before sharing it with other stakeholders, says it had not received an alert.

Despite reported claims by a Chhattisgarh senior police officer that he had tipped off well in advance the state, CRPF and other stakeholders of an impending Maoist strike at Jeeram Ghati in Bastar, which took place on May 25, killing several senior Congress leaders.

Government sources believe that the claim made by state ADG (Intelligence) Mukesh Gupta seems to be an attempt to guard himself as two inquires are going on to fix responsibility of the security lapses regarding the attack.

A government officer was surprised of Gupta’s claim now, which he made more than a month after the ghastly incident.

Interestingly, the faxes he claims he had sent about a fortnight before the May 25 attack was not received either by the Intelligence Bureau’s MAC or the CRPF.

The only officials, curiously, acknowledging that Gupta’s department had sent the alert was the state police. ADG (Naxals) R K Viz had accepted in a news report that he got the fax alerting of a possible attack.

Questioning the assertion of Gupta to media, a government senior officer asked who had stopped him from carrying out operations if he had such precise intelligence input on a possible attack in Jeeram Ghati.

Government sources said that Gupta had carried out operations in that region two days before Maoists attacked a Congress convoy by planting landmines.

Gupta has also come under the attack from the Congress, which has demanded that he be removed on charges that he was trying to influence investigations being carried out by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on the landmine blasts.

On Saturday, Congress leader Bhakt Charan Das had sought the resignations of Gupta and Viz, accusing them of not discharging their duty and not providing foolproof security for the convoy.

Apart from the NIA, a state judicial commission is also looking into the attack.