Naxal abduction blows a perfect IB cover

He was picked up along with a schoolteacher,Soumyajeet Basu,by Maoists. Police say Basu may have been present with Biswas by chance when the Maoists kidnapped the two.

Purulia has emerged as the new Naxal hub in Bengal,in place of Lalgarh,with Maoists spread in about 50 small hamlets scattered around Ayodhya Hills.

Forty-eight hours after the abduction,there is no news of Biswas or Basu. The police efforts at opening a communication channel have so far run into a wall — ironically also because Biswas’s arrest has put the several NGOs working in the area now under the Maoists’ arc of suspicion.

The abductions come close on the heels of the arrest of three Maoist squad members for the killing of three persons,including a Forward Bloc leader. The arrested Maoists,according to police sources,belong to the squad led by Ranjit Paul.

Biswas’s research on medicinal plants around Bagmundi in Ayodhya hills apart,he grew up in Jhargram town where his father was a government employee. His wife Barnali also has wide contacts in Bandowan area in Purulia, where she works in a school. His family vouches for his spirit of adventure,which reportedly even took him to Kargil during the war.

Basu teaches geography in Kamarhati High School in Hooghly. It was love for nature that had brought the IB inspector and teacher together. His brother says Basu had told them he was going to Ayodhya to see the forests during full moon.

Police believe the Maoists will establish contact when they have managed to take Biswas and Basu to somewhere safe. They also believe that behind the abduction is the Ayodhya Squad of Maoists,headed by a 29-year-old commander,Vikram a.k.a Arnab Dam a.k.a Surya.

Dam is a science graduate from a college in Barasat in North 24 Paraganas and happens to be the son of a retired additional sessions judge.

Documents accessed by The Indian Express show that there are three squads operational in the Purulia district and the chief-in-command is Dam. Papers with the Express show his name came up in statements and interrogation reports of Shoba Mandi,Telegu Deepak and Ravi Shankar Narla.

A senior official on condition of anonymity added: “The Ayodhya squad has differences of opinion with those operating in the Lalgarh region,headed by leaders like Akash and Batash and sometimes Kishenji. The latter are predominantly from the PWG,before their merger into the CPI (Maoist),while the Purulia Squad is predominantly MCC cadre,considered to be more more ruthless… The difference became evident when Kishenji welcomed the move of Mamata Banerjee holding a peace and public rally in Lalgarh. Vikram issued an open letter opposing Kishenji’s stand and criticised Mamata for not making her stand clear on Maoists and Nandigram.”

Biswas’s family has appealed to the abductors to let him go. IG,Western Range ,Zulfiquar Hassan said they were trying their best to secure their release.

The special operations groups of the state police has reached Purulia and has been asked to stay on standby.