'Free' Azad resorts to 'Gandhigiri'

When Sabyasachi Panda alias Sunil, the head of the Maoists’ Odisha operations, announced on March 18 the abduction of two Italians sending a shockwave in the corridors of power in Bhubaneswar, another interesting naxal related incident was unfolding inside the high security Jharpada prison in the state’s capital Bhubaneswar.

Guna Kesaba Rao alias Azad, a hardcore and most wanted Maoist who had surrendered before the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh police last year, was resorting to Gandhigiri inside the four walls of his prison cell.

 He had begun a fast unto death demanding his immediate release. His allegation was Odisha police had detained him illegally.

According to Azad, after his surrender to Andhra  police in May last year, he was allowed to go home as per the promise made to him - in other words a return to the mainstream and normal life.

However, just a few days later, in the month of June, an Odisha police team landed in his village on the Andhra-Odisha border and picked him up with a promise that he would be released after a routine round of interrogation. But instead of the promised freedom, the Odisha police arrested him and brought him to the state to face trial in several naxal related violence cases.

Distraught mother
His repeated pleas to the local media while being produced by the police in a court in neighbouring coastal district of Nayagarh, was strongly supported by his mother Kamalamma, who was recently in Bhubaneswar to meet her son. She too had sat on a dharna in front of the Jharpada jail for a brief period when the prison authorities did not allow her to meet Azad.

“In fact, I persuaded Azad to go with the Odisha police team as they had promised to free him after a brief interrogation. Now I feel guilty,” said Kamalamma with tears in her eyes.

No release
However, the state authorities have made it clear there was no question of releasing Azad as he was involved in several high profile naxal crimes, including the 2008 killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati in Kandhamal, which triggered unprecedented communal violence in the backward district.

 In 2008, he had also led the serial naxal attack on police establishments in coastal Nayagarh town. “How can he be released when he was not only involved in but also commanded such high profile naxal attacks in the state?” asked a senior home department official, who denied any knowledge of the police promise to release Azad after questioning.

The exit
It is still a mystery as to what prompted Azad, a “senior military commander”, to quit after nearly 20 years in the Maoist fold. Some sources close to the left-wing ultras said Azad decided to call it off after a dispute with other seniors over funds collection from different sources.

He was demoted subsequently. Some others said, his constant differences with Sabyasachi Panda finally led to his departure.

After fasting for a couple of days, Jharpada jail authorities had shifted him to the ICU of government run Sriram Chandra Bhanja medical college and hospital in Cuttack. On discharge last Friday, he told reporters that he would be fasting again in his prison cell soon.

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