Cops, rights groups in war of words

​Vijayawada: Did RK, the top gun of the Maoists, go out of `RV point’, meaning rendezvous (meeting or contact) point in the parlance of the outlawed Left Wing Extremists (LWE) ever since the bloody day-1 encounter in the Chhattisgarh forest area near Bejjangi three days ago?

RK and Gajarla Ravi, secretary of the Andhra Odisha Border (AOB) area, went `missing’ from the encounter site which left 28 militants dead. Surely, the two top leaders survived the ghastly police attack as police failed to confirm their death after the identification of the victims.

Incidentally, RK’s son was also killed in the encounter. The whereabouts of the two top leaders triggered massive protests from the pro-Maoist organisations such as the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC), Viplava Rachayithala Sangha (Virasam) and the other rights groups while keep the police on the defensive.

Quoting past instances, the top brass from the intelligence and greyhound agencies assert that the two leaders only went out of the so-called RV point. “Generally, appt (appointment) is fixed up between the underground leaders to meet at a particular point on a particular date.

If it does not take place due to any reason, the underground leaders goad their mass organisations into action in an obvious bid to exert pressure on the police to produce the ‘missing’ leaders, if arrested, in the court”, a senior officer from the Greyhounds told The Hans. “When we have not got RK and Ravi with us, the question of their being produced court will not obviously arise”, the officer quipped.

However, the manner in which the series of killings in different spells of encounters on a daily basis are happening in the same forest area in the last three days give credence to the apprehensions being raised by the pro-Maoist groups.

Twenty-eight militants were shot dead on the day-1, four were killed on the second day and two were killed on the third day in a similar fashion, taking the toll to 34. “When an encounter takes place with a heavy casualty, do the survivors remain at the same place to be killed day after day without fleeing away”, asks Virasam leader Vara Vara Rao.

“We got information that RK and Ravi are under the police custody only. We are apprehensive over the safety of their lives as they may be killed in fake encounters”, he told The Hans India.

According to Varavara Rao, a little over 70 senior leaders from the Maoist party, who included RK and several other central committee members, came to the party meeting as three streams from different directions.

Some of them were caught and shot in the dead of night after they reached the meeting venue even as others were apprehended by the police, he said. Visakhapatnam Rural SP Rahul Dev Sarma however contradicted this version and denied that no Maoist leader was under the police custody.

Meanwhile, the pro-Maoist organisations staged a demonstration at the TDP head office in Hyderabad, demanding the release of RK and other leaders, allegedly under police custody. Addressing the protesters, Varavara Rao warned that the TDP government will be held responsible if any harm is done to RK and his associates.

Even as the ongoing spat between the police and pro-Maoist organisations over the genuineness of the encounters and safety of RK reaches its crescendo, actual facts still remain elusive. Independent rights groups have been attempting to reach the encounter sites for the last three days on a fact-finding mission.

But their efforts were not successful due to the inhospitable terrain, no let up in the spree of encounters and the adivasis in the area are under the grip of fear and not in a position to speak up.