Maoists release Bihar BDO

Singh was kidnapped on August 29 from Ladhoura village where he had gone for election-related work,I G (Tirhut zone) Gupteshwar Pandey said.

He said the BDO was traceless till this morning despite a massive search. The joint forces of Bihar Military Police (BMP),CRPF and Special Auxiliary Police (SAP) from Sheohar,Madhubani,East Champaran,Muzaffarpur and Sitamarhi had been engaged in the search.

The driver of the official vehicle in which Singh was travelling when he was abducted and a public heath centre employee accompanying him had returned home on Sunday night.

Earlier,Singh’s wife and son had appealed to the Maoists to release him and urged Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to personally intervene in the matter.

Later talking to reporters after senior police officials reached his house,Singh said the kidnappers had brought him on a motorcycle blind-folded and dropped him at a place about

five to seven kms from his house on Muzaffarpur-Darbhanga road this morning.

“I took a tractor from there and reached home.” He said the Maoists behaved well with him and “even provided good food… cigarettes and tobacco in the captivity”.

Asked why the Maoists targeted him,Singh said a youth specifically inquired from him when the BDO was visiting Ladhaura area for the election-related work.

“When I revealed my identity,he took out a pistol. Those along with him came on a motorcycle and tied my hands and feet taking me away to an unknown place where I was kept blind-folded,” he said.

Singh said their main demand was release of some of their members taken into custody by the authorities.

“I am a poor man and doing the work for the poor and I believe they too are poor apparently and therefore did not cause any harm to me… they remained polite causing no fear of losing my life,” he said.