BHUBANESWAR: Dunna Kamalamma, mother of hardcore Maoist Dunna Keshava Rao alias Azad, was on Monday not allowed to meet her son lodged at Special Jail in Jharpara.
Kamalamma waited till 5 pm outside the prison premises, but returned to Srikakulam without meeting her son. She threatened to sit on dharna there and if needed, end her life. Kamalamma has been demanding Azad’s release on the ground that her son had surrendered and was not arrested. The police had assured the family that surrender compensation will be given and the radical will be set free, but the words were never kept, she alleged.
Azad’s mother arrived at the Special Jail at about 10 am to meet her son. “The prison authorities asked me to wait till 3 pm. I said, I have a train to catch around the same time, but they would not listen,” she told mediapersons. In fact, she came to meet Azad after news broke that her son was planning to go on strike here in the prison seeking his release.
Azad, a military head of Basdhara dalam, had surrendered before Andhra Pradesh DGP on May 18, 2011. He was released after interrogation. This happened when Odisha Police wanted to lay its hands on the Maoist, who is the main accused in Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati murder and several other major operations.
While AP Police did not hand him over to its Odisha counterpart, Azad was picked up from his village by Odisha police a few days later for questioning and was arrested on June 1 last year. He has been in the jail since then.
Kamalamma said the police of both the States had assured her that her son will be freed and surrender compensation will be provided. She had also written a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in this regard.