Deal reached with Maoists: Alex Paul Menon to be freed

An end to the 10-day hostage crisis involving Sukma Collector Alex Paul Menon appears to be in sight with Maoists’ mediators announcing late on Monday that the IAS officer would be released within 48 hours. The breakthrough to ensure the safe return of the 32-year-old collector, who was abducted on 21 April, on or before 2 May 2 came in the form of an agreement between the two mediators each of the Chattisgarh government and the Maoists at their fourth round of talks on Monday. The talks were spread over three days. Chief Minister Raman Singh termed the agreement as a “historic step towards peace and development." “I hope Alex Paul Menon will be released within 48 hours,” Singh told reporters on Monday after the two-page agreement was initialled by the mediators in the presence of Principal Secretary (Home) NK Aswal. [caption id=“attachment_284388” align=“alignright” width=“380” caption=“Hopes are revived that Alex Paul Menon will be released soon. PTI”]  [/caption] Under the agreement, the mediators nominated by Maoists have agreed as a “gesture of goodwill” to ensure the safe return of Menon within 48 hours. The agreement did not concede the demand by the Maoists for the release of their eight jailed associates in exchange for the freedom of Menon, an asthmatic for whom medicines had to be rushed into the deep jungles. But the statement said government had agreed to set up a high-powered committee under the chairmanship of Nirmala Buch, one of the two government mediators, to review the cases of prisoners in Chattisgarh jails, including the cases demanded by the Maoists. The Committee, which will have Chief Secretary and state DGP as members, will become operational “within an hour” of the release of Menon, according to the agreement. There was no immediate word directly from the Maoists on the agreement. “Under the given circumstances, we as mediators feel that this was the agreement that could be worked out. We appeal to Maoist party, Southern Regional Committee, Dandakaranya to consider this proposal favourably and ensure safe return of the Collector Alex Paul Menon, whose spouse is in the family way,” Maoists’ negotiators BD Sharma and G Hargopal said in their joint appeal.. The agreement was approved by a Cabinet sub-committee headed by the Chief Minister. It emphasised that the large number of tribal people and others who are in judicial custody in the state in various jails was a concern. The proposed three-member Committee would regularly review all cases of persons in jails in the state where investigation/prosecution was in progress, the statement added. In such a review, the lists of cases received by the mediators in respect of tribal people of Bastar and surrounding areas shall be given priority, the agreement said. Before the agreement was announced, the Maoists had set a fresh deadline of 2 May for the Chhatisgarh government to release eight of their jailed associates. If the demand was not met, the IAS officer’s fate would be decided by a ‘Jan Adalat’, they said. In a message sent to the local media, the Maoists said they would release Menon if the government sent eight of the jailed workers along with their mediators Sharma and Hargopal to the remote Tadmetla village. The faxed message, signed by Ganesh Uike, secretary South Regional Committee of CPI (Maoist), also said the Collector was in the custody of People’s Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA) and was being treated as a “prisoner of war”. It demanded that the government revoke “false cases” filed against villagers. PTI