Fresh leads in the murder of two CPM men in Lalgarh show that the Maoists in the area are not only able to roam free and extort money from locals but also hold “jana adalats” or people’s court where they deliver their own version of “justice”.

Last Wednesday, Maoists held one such public meeting in Chuasol and decided to “award death sentence” to CPM leader Gurucharan Mahato. This was followed by another public meeting on Friday in Sirsi village where they also decided to kill Baren Mahato, a ration dealer. Ironically, Sirsi village is just 4 km away from Chandra where security forces are camping. Maoist posters found from the spots claim that they were killed for working as police informers, apart from their affiliation to the CPM.

“All I can say is a lot of work needs to be done. We are trying hard to gain people’s confidence and at the same time carry on our operation against the Maoists,” said DIG Midnapore Range Praveen Kumar.

Though the administration claims that the recent operations have made it tough for the Maoists to carry on with their attacks, the writ of the Naxals in the villages remains intact. In areas like Ramgarh and Kantapahari — declared “liberated of Maoists” by the security forces, the Naxals had recently held public meetings. Two such adalats were held by the Maoists in Dherua too. On Saturday night, the Maoist cadres allegedly set fire to the house of a CPM supporter Sudarshan Das at Nimol village in Salboni.

... contd.