MP minister8217;smurderers still at large

BHOPAL, JAN 2: More than a fortnight after the murder of Madhya Pradesh transport Minister Likhiram Kawre allegedly by Naxalites at his na...

BHOPAL, JAN 2: More than a fortnight after the murder of Madhya Pradesh transport Minister Likhiram Kawre allegedly by Naxalites at his native village Sohanpuri in Balaghat district, a police search for his killers continues to be elusive. Kawre was the first person of the rank of a minister to have been killed in Madhya Pradesh allegedly by Naxalites who had till now in the state eliminated only police personnel or police informers either through landmines or in encounters.

Soon after Kawre was killed, the state government set up a nine-member high-level team under the leadership of DIG, R C Arora, to probe the murder but till now it has not come up with anything concrete about the identity of the killers.

Arora had been chosen to head this high-level team as he possesses more than 10 years experience of working with the CBI. Kawre8217;s murder sent shockwaves throughout MP although Home Minister Nand Kumar Patel and DGP Subhash Chandra Tripathi claimed that the killing did not in any way indicate that lawand order situation was deteriorating in the state. This claim has been strongly disputed by the opposition BJP whose leader in the State Assembly, Dr Gauri Shanker Shewjar, said if the State Government could not protect the life of a m

inister, one could not expect it to provide protection to the common man.Soon after the minister8217;s killing, the Naxalites were reported to have claimed responsibility for Kawre8217;s murder but there was no dearth of people who continue to disbelieve this claim.

These people8217;s disbelief stems from a number of a reasons including the fact that Kawre was never on the hit list of any Naxalite group. They also point out that just before he was murdered on the night of December 16, 1999, Kawre had sent away his personal guards to sleep at a nearby rest house something which he would not have done had he been scared of Naxalites.

A letter purported to have been written by one Santosh of the Malajkhand Dalam of Naxalites to mediapersons claimed that the minister was murdered inretaliation to the killing of four Naxalites in an alleged encounter with the police at Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh on December 2, 1999.

This also seems to be rather dubious since no purpose would apparently served by killing a minister in MP to protest against the murder of Naxalites in an encounter with the police in the neighbouring state.

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The team headed by DIG Arora has so far visited scores of villages in Balaghat district to trace the minister8217;s killers but so far they have not been able to come up with anything.

Incidentally, the People8217;s War Group of Naxalites continue to be a legal organisation in Madhya Pradesh although it is outlawed in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. The main reason for this appears to be the fact that although Naxalite activity in Andhra Pradesh is spread almost all over the state, in Madhya Pradesh it is confined only to nine out of a total of 61 districts.

Apart from Balaghat, the other eight districts affected by Naxalite activity in Madhya Pradesh are Bastar, Kanker,Dantewada, Rajnandgaon, Kawardha, Mandla, Dindori and Surguja. Soon after Kawre8217;s murder, the Madhya Pradesh Government had announced a reward of Rs 50,000 to any person giving information about the killers.

This reward amount was later increased to Rs five lakh by Home Minister Nand Kumar Patel but even this has failed to produce any result.