Cops blame PCAPA,Trinamool runs its camps

We have identified Bapi Mahato,Umakanto Mahato and others who held a meeting on the night of May 26 where they finalised the plan. The meeting was held in Murakati village

under Jhargram sub-division,

a senior police officer told The Indian Express.

We have evidence that the group planned to derail a goods train passing through that area at night. But somehow they mixed up timings and the passenger train was derailed, the officer said.

DGP Bhupinder Singh said: We are 100 per cent sure that the Maoists are behind this incident.

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Cops blame PCAPA,Mamata party runs relief camps for its supporters

We have enough evidence,and we have identified the group behind this.

Police said the PCAPA group was active in and around Banstala station. It allegedly had a hand in the firing on Steel Express on May 23.

Incidentally,the PCAPA has had fairly good ties with the Trinamool Congress of Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The Trinamool even runs four relief camps in the Jhargram-Lalgarh belt for victims of atrocities committed by the joint forces and armed CPM cadres.

Suvendu Adhikary,Trinamool MP from Tamluk,said: We condemn the train incident8230; we are running relief camps for the victims of atrocities committed by the joint forces. There are PCAPA supporters among the victims. But they are innocent people,caught in the crossfire between Maoists and security forces.

He plans to lead a campaign in Jangalmahal after the municipal elections. We plan to highlight the plight of the people and take on armed CPM cadres who are trying to gain ground with the help of security forces, Adhikary said.

In the past,the Trinamool has held joint meetings with PCAPA leader Chhatradhar Mahato,made efforts to arrange legal support for arrested PCAPA supporters and run relief camps for PCAPA sympathisers.

Ever since the 2008 rural polls in West Bengal,the Trinamool had been reaching out to Chhatradhar Mahato. An activist of the Chhatra Parishad,the student wing of the Congress,during his college years,Mahato later became a member of the Trinamool. His proximity to Banerjee increased after he led a tribal agitation in the name of the PCAPA.

In February 2009, Banerjee went to Lalgarh with her senior leaders and met Mahato. She held a joint rally with the PCAPA at Katapahari. When joint operations against the Maoists began in June 2009,she sent her two ministers,Mukul Roy and Sisir Adhikary,along with Partho Chatterjee,leader of Opposition in the state Assembly,to Lalgarh,Goaltore and other areas. In July,Adhikary,Roy and Chatterjee visited Lalgarh and met Mahato in Gohomidanga. They took with them clothes,food,medicines for PCAPA supporters.

The intellectuals who backed Banerjee also took up the cause of Chhatradhar Mahato,visiting him in Lalgarh. After his arrest,some of them including theatre actor Saoli Mitra,who is chairperson of the Railway Heritage Committee,attended a rally for his release.

Trinamool leaders have no hesitation in admitting that Mahato was actively involved with them. In the last panchayat elections,Chhatradhar Mahato was in charge of three booths in Lalgarh on behalf of the Trinamool. These included Katapahari and Ramgarh,two very disturbed areas. But we are not with him now. I cannot say anything more, said Gouranga Pradhan,West Midnapore district secretary of the Trinamool.

PCAPA spokesperson Asit Mahato said: Mamata Banerjee was definitely with us. She needed us. But now she has power and is like anybody else.