Agencies planting 'escape' reports: Ghandy

Naxal ideologue denies links with Maoists

In a letter to the Chairperson, National Human rights commission, Ghandy said: “Intelligence agencies have been planting stories in media as though I am some top leader of the Maoist party even before the case is decided by the court”. He said a latest attempt has been made by media reports on April 13 and 14 “of the supposed plan to attack the train I was travelling in from Delhi to Bengal in a supposed escape bid.”

Ghandy, a Doon School product with a rich family background who once studied with Congress leader Sanjay Gandhi has strongly denied having any links with the Maoists.
Dated April 17, the letter is also marked to Home Ministry, Delhi Special Cell, DG, Prisons, Tihar, Union Minister Kamal Nath, Attorney General GE Vahanvati and PUCL, PUDR and other human rights organisations.

Ghandy on April 10 morning said he was suffering from severe loose motions and in the afternoon he was informed that he had to go to Bengal. He said he sent a letter saying he was not fit to travel and asked for postponement but a doctor in the jail certified him as fit.

“Now, if the intelligence agencies had merely checked with the prison authorities they would have realised my strong reluctance to travel, let alone plan to escape”, he said. Ghandy said this apart, he was taken off the train at Allahabad under police escort. “How were the supposed attackers to know I had disembarked at Allahabad. Yet, no attack took place on the train”, he said pointing out that intelligence reports were “incorrect”.
The alleged Maoist leader charged intelligence agencies of publicising the issue in a big way as an escape bid. He charged them of “sensationalising” the issue.
When Deccan Herald asked a top official in Ministry of Home Affairs to react to the charges , he said the measures were taken in the interest of internal security. “What he is saying is not my reason ....instead of taking him in an unreserved compartment we flew him to West Bengal to be taken to Medinipur,” the official said.

Ghandy after being taken off at Allahabad was flown to West Bengal by air. He said, he was also flown back from Andhra Pradesh in December 2009 with the state Intelligence Bureau briefing the media even before “I had left AP.” He charged intelligence agencies of “psychologically pressuring” him and “condemn” him even before the trial.
DH News Service