BHOPAL: Nearly two weeks have passed but the Madhya Pradesh Police has failed to track a Nekhlal Masram who was allegedly kidnapped by armed Maoists cadres from the jungles of Balaghat district on November 17.
The 45-year-old Nekhram Masram, a native of Chilkona village of Maoists-affected Lanji police station area of Balaghat district was kidnapped by armed Maoists cadres on the night of November 17. When his wife tried to resist husband’s kidnapping bid, she was assaulted by the abductors.
But 13 days after the incident, the Balaghat police and the entire anti-Naxal security apparatus in the region has failed to track or get any clue about the kidnapped man, who was earlier a Maoists sympathizer.
Sources in anti-Naxal security apparatus in Balaghat district confided to The New Indian Express that Masram was in the past associated with the Sangam team of the Maoists and supplied necessary support to armed cadres.
It’s quite possible that suspecting that Masram had now turned a police informer, he was abducted by the armed outlawed cadres.
“The only clue which we’ve so far got about the incident is that two-three days after the alleged kidnapping, a man resembling him was seen along with an armed group of Maoists in the dense forests around 25 to 30 km from where he was kidnapped,” Balaghat district police superintendent Abhishek Tiwari said.
He added that the police in Balaghat and neighbouring Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh are jointly working in the matter, but still failed to track the kidnapped man.
Three groups of CPI (Maoists), including Tanda, Darre Khasa and Malajkhand Dalams have been active in Balaghat district, while another group – the Vistar Platoon – has been working to mobilize popular support to create a new corridor from Kavardha district of adjoining Chhattisgarh to Mandla district of MP through the Kanha National Park and Tiger Reserve.