India - Protest against shifting Maoist prisoners

KOLKATA: The Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP) has condemned the “arbitrary” transfer of Maoists from the Midnapore central jail to different jails across the state. Two days ago, the Mamata Banerjee government moved seven leaders, including PCPA chief Chhatradhar Mahato, PCPA leader Sukshanti Baskey, Maoist state committee members Sudip Chongdar and Kalpana Maity, Maoist sympathisers Raja Sarkhel and Prasun Chatterjee, to different jails in the state following reports that they were plotting to jailbreak. PCPA or the Peoples Committee against Police Atrocities is the frontal organisation of the CPI-Maoists.
In a press release, the CRPP said that “We strongly condemn the arbitrary transfer of the leaders to different jails on the plea of security reasons. Prasun, a resident of Kolkata, was transferred to far-off Purulia-Bankura jail …” Even as ADG (prison) Ranveer Kumar said claimed that “the seven Maoists were hatching a plot to free from jail and that they had been staying together in the correctional home for far too long, we have decided to separate them for sometime and send them to different correctional homes,” the CRPP has sought to know the status of the cases registered against the political prisoners.
The press release read: “Chhatradhar Mahato has got bail in most of the cases. He has been acquitted in the Anuj Pandey case. The UAPA case, in which all of them are implicated, has been deliberately delayed by the absence of the investigating officer (IO) for months together and will come up for final hearing in late November 2013.” It added, “Against Prasun and Raja, there is only one case each. Why should the prisoners conspire to escape from jail at all?” The forum of political prisoners said it would have made sense had the prisoners been shifted to jails located near their residences.