RAIPUR: Forget robbery, theft or burglary by 'unemployed' persons! In Chhattisgarh, three youths, seen crafty while exploring the option to secure their future, had cooked up an account before the police outlining their "association with the banned outfit CPI (Maoist)", that has waged a war against the state for the last four decades.
The youths, all tribals educated and in their late twenties, attempted to misguide senior government officials claiming their alliance with the outlawed Maoist as active members and expressed their desire to surrender before the Balod district police chief.
The prime motivator for the 'jobless' youths apparently seems to either secure the declared incentives under the government's surrender and rehabilitation policy or stand a chance to get a job and other benefits declared in the package.
Madhu Modiyam, his relative Manku both from Bijapur (south Bastar) along with their accomplice Om Prakash Netam from Mohala Manpur (Rajnandgaon district) presented themselves before the senior police officials of Balod district.
To impress upon the police, they claimed to have become frustrated with the anti-development and anti-tribal ideology of the left-wing extremists and so decided to surrender. They also claimed to have been earlier involved in several incidents of Maoist violence.
“During the verification process, we got suspicious about the three youths. And soon found their claims as untrue and fabricated. All three of them were from regions having the presence of Maoists so they might have secure information about the surrender and rehabilitation policy of the government. They concocted a story professing as active members of Manpur Mohala Area Committee of Maoist (in Rajnandgaon)”, Ashok Kumar Joshi, additional superintendent of police in Balod told this newspaper.
“Why the youths attempted to mislead the police in Balod district remains under investigation. But its seems their intention was to gain benefits from the surrender policy. They were perhaps not employed. All three have been arrested and a case has been registered against them under the Section 319 (2) (whoever cheats by personation can be punished with imprisonment for up to five years, a fine, or both) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) that came into effect on 1 July.