Darbha attack on Congress leaders not planned, says surrendered Maoist

Captured Maoist rebel says, ambush that killed Salwa Judum founder and firmer leader was spontaneous and not planned in advance.

In a major revelation about the Darbha attack in which senior Congress leaders were killed exactly two years ago on May 25, 2013, a surrendered Maoist has claimed that the ambush on Salwa Judum Mahendra Karma and others was spontaneous, not planned in advance.

Sannu Potam alias Kiran, who was part of the attack, said that the guerrillas had planned an attack on the security forces as part of their ‘Tactical Counter Offensive Campaign’. The Congress leaders were trapped just by chance. Kiran surrendered with an SLR and as many as 47 rounds last week in Dantewada. In the entire history of Maoist conflict, this is the first surrender with an SLR in the Bastar zone. SLR is a superior rifle, next only to AK-47 in the Maoist armoury.

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His claims about the Darbha incident refute the conspiracy theories floated by Chhattisgarh politicians that some leaders of BJP or Congress sided with the Maoists.

In an interview with The Indian Express, Kiran, who was a member of the Malangir Area Committee, described the incident. “We were sitting in the ambush site at Darbha for seven days. Our target was the police. On that day we learnt that Karma had passed through this area and is likely to return in the evening. It was here that we decided to hit him,” he said.

Their target was only Karma, other Congress leaders were killed in the crossfire, he claimed.
Kiran said that the attack was launched by Darbha Division of the CPI (Maoist), with some teams from West Bastar also coming for help. “Surendra and Deva led the attack. We were a group of nearly 150 Naxals,” he said. Surendra is the secretary of Darbha Division, Deva the in-charge of its operational command.

According to Kiran, a Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee member Shyam alias Ganganna was in touch with them through wireless set, issuing commands.

His account also refutes the claims by several intelligence agencies cited by the media that top-most leaders of the Central Committee had supervised the attack. His account also corroborates what senior Maoists, who were not part of the attack, had earlier told this correspondent that the attack was an operation solely by the local Darbha team and Central Committee was not involved at all. “We came to know about it only through radio,” Ramdher, head of one of the two battalions in Bastar, once told The Indian Express. Rejecting media reports that CC member Ramanna led the attack, Ramdher said: “Ramanna was not even in Darbha then. He was here with us. We all heard the news about the killing of Nand Kumar Patel (Congress president) and instantly said. Oh, ye kya kiya (Oh, why did you do it)”.

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Kiran’s surrender is also interesting. His former boss and the Secretary of Malangir Area Committee, Sanjay Potam alias Badru had surrendered two years before. He was made a constable this February. Subsequently, the Bastar police printed pamphlets on Badru’s behalf and distributed in interior areas. Kiran telephoned Badru, asked him about the surrender policy and came out with his weapon.

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