India - We can’t tolerate police informers, says Maoist commander

EXCLUSIVE: We can’t tolerate police informers, says Maoist commander
Jamui: Maoists rubbished allegation that they had demanded extortion in exchange for the seven laborers who were abducted from a bridge construction site in Bihar on January 26. They said they were opposing the construction of the bridge on Badaldih River and therefore, they carried off the seven men who were engaged in the work. “We can release the kidnapped men as the construction work has been stopped,” a Maoist commander told Dainik Bhaskar. He said all those who were held hostage are safe until the police take any action against the armed insurgents.
Accusing the police of targeting innocents in the name of Maoists, he said, “Poor villagers are being kept behind bars on false cases. The police must stop this.” When asked the bridge should not be constructed, he said they do not have any problem with this construction but some local influential people have made lakhs of rupees from the bridge contractor in the name of Maoists. “We had given clear instructions that until the guilty are indentified and arrested, the construction work will not start. But this instruction was ignored which forced us to abduct the laborers,” he said.
Koda said they never harm poor people. “Poor people and labourers are our brothers. But we don’t tolerate police informers,” he said. The labourers have also confirmed that they are safe and Maoists are taking care of them. Maoists carried off seven labourers at Badaldih village in Bihar’s Jamui district on the night of January 26. They had reportedly demanded an extortion of Rs 15 crore. The refusal to pay them resulted in the abduction of the labourers.