Maoists to target illegal money-lending rackets

A week after suspected Maoist insurgents exchanged fires with members of a Kerala Police commando force in Wayanad district, the insurgents have said they would now target illegal money-lending rackets.

In an article that appeared on Sunday on ‘Kaattuthee’  (Wild fire), a mouthpiece news bulletin in Wayanad, the insurgents said policemen were also aiding illegal moneylenders who have caught farmers, labourers and tribals in a web of debts and forced thousands to suicide in the district.

In the article, the insurgents termed the state government’s much-hyped ongoing crackdown on illegal moneylenders – Operation Kubera – a “comical play”. The mouthpiece also published transcripts of a purported telephonic conversation between a police official at the Vellamunda station and an illegal moneylender where the official tips off the moneylender about an impending raid.