How CPI(ML) leader K N Ramachandran went ‘missing’ in Kolkata

Today he sits in the CPI(ML) Red Star Office at 141 Sainik Nagar. “It was a kidnapping – that too filmy style,” he chuckles. Ramachandran alleged that his “kidnappers” had told him that they were officers from Central Intelligence and that they had been “instructed by New Delhi” to pick him up.

Ramachandran says that he was on his way to Bhangar, where a people’s agitation turned violent on January 17 and firing from unidentified sources led to the death of two youths. Ramachandran was to meet the families of the two deceased, as well as “show solidarity to the people’s movement” that is fighting against the construction of a sub-power station by PGCIL on behalf of the state government.

In Lucknow, Ramachandran had just finished a UP Committee meeting where they were deciding on the candidature for the upcoming UP Assembly elections. “We are fielding six candidates from Sitapur and five others in different districts in UP – so 11 in all,” he says.

After having completed the meeting, Ramachandran headed straight for the railway station where he boarded the Nangaldam Express. “I reached Kolkata at 5.15 in the evening. I made a couple of calls to my comrades. They were waiting for me at the RG Kar Medical bus stop so I started making my way toward the bus stop with my attaché in hand. Suddenly out of nowhere I was surrounded by a group of six-seven men. They snatched by attaché and shoved me forcibly in to a Tata Sumo. There was another car at the back that was following us. A large man had clamped his hand over my mouth so I couldn’t yell. It was a busy place, with lots of traffic and people. But I don’t know if anyone saw us,” he says.

Once inside the car, Ramachandran says that his “kidnappers” tied a towel around his eyes, blindfolding him. Two hours later, the car stopped. “Even through the blindfold I knew it was a busy area because I could hear the traffic, so it was probably on a main road of sorts. It was near a Masjid because I could hear the Azaan and there was some function celebrating Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s birthday somewhere nearby,” he says.

On entering the building and his blindfold having been taken off, the Red Star leader realized that it was a two-storey empty house in a residential colony. “Probably somewhere on the outskirts of Kolkata city,” he says. They took him to a room and started interrogating him. They knew he was headed to Bhangar.

“There were a number of men there who told me they were Central Intelligence Officers. Then they told me that I have to go to Delhi. That they had been instructed to send me. That the Bhangar project was for the benefit of Bengal and was not to be interrupted and that the agitation was a movement against Bengal. They said they were helping Bengal government on the instructions of the Centre,” he says.

Ramachandran says he had a number of heated arguments with the officers there. Especially a Malayali officer who was talking to him. “The Malayali officer called me a Maoist. I said he was an ignorant fool. That we have nothing to do with Maoists. That it was Mamata Banerjee who the Maoists had supported during Nandigram. That even then, at Nandigram, we had opposed the CPI(M). And just because we opposed the CPM, that does not mean that we will support the TMC. We opposed both at the time. I told them they need to read the law. That it was illegal to construct a grid line through thickly populated areas and it is dangerous as well because the 22000 volt lines could kill people. I had two scientific articles on me which I gave to the officers, and I told them – study it. You need to know,” he says.

Later in the night, the “officers” gave Ramachandran a bedsheet which he spread on the ground and slept on. “Thankfully I was carrying my own blanket. Two officers also spread sheets and slept on the ground near me before locking the room. There were others stationed outside,” he says.

In the morning, the “officers” blindfolded Ramachandran once more. “After around 3-4 hours they took the blindfold off and I realized they had brought me to Durgapur railway station. They took my phone so I couldn’t make any calls. I had around Rs 3000 with me. They took my money so I couldn’t go back. So I took the ticket and boarded the train for Delhi. They told me – don’t come back to Bengal. On the train I befriended some fellow passengers and used their phones to call my family and assure them I was ok. Then I called my comrades. They came and picked me up from the New Delhi Railway station at 7.30 this morning,” he says.

While the West Bengal police have denied any knowledge of Ramachandran’s disappearance, Jt CP (Crime) Vishal Garg held a meeting with Red Star office bearers in Kolkata this morning. “Sankar Das and Rabi Palur had come to meet me regarding the missing case of KN Ramachandran. They had submitted all possible details. We are looking in to the matter,” says garg speaking with The Indian Express.

Meanwhile, state secretary of Red Star Pradeep Thakur says, “the police told us, give us photographs of the gentleman and we will put up posters everywhere. As if people would see the posters and come and inform them. We are convinced that it is the state police that is behind the incident. Or the central and state police in cooperation with each other,” says Thakur.

Ramachandran, meanwhile, will be headed to Hyderabad on Thursday to attend more meetings there. For now, his plans to visit Bhangar have been stalled.