Three JU professors, poet working for Maoists: Cops

Police have claimed that enior Maoist leader and the outfit's Kolkata city committee secretary Abhishek Mukherjee, who was arrested two months ago, has named three professors of Jadavpur University and a poet who are "actively associated" with the CPI (Maoist).

Though the police refused to name the, they said they are collecting evidence gainst them to prove their role in Maoist activities. "We have zeroed in on some senior members of the organisation in the socitey and we have evidence to prove in the court that they are more than Maoist 'sympathizers'," said a senior police official on the condition of anonymity.

A seizure list, which has been submitted to the court, states that 43 letters were seized from Mukherjee, which according to the police were "highly confidential" in nature. Police said that Mukherjee was carrying these letters and some important documents of the outfit with him when he was arrested this September. They said the documents, including a Maoist circular undersigned by the outfit's Kolkata city committee secretary, that were seized from the three Maoists, including Mukherjee, unveil the strategy of the CPI (Maoist) on starting an "urban warfare" in Kolkata.

"The recovered documents indicate that the Maoists are using several anti-government organisations to find a toehold in workers' associations. The evident purpose is to work from within and motivate the workers to carry out violent protests and destabilise the state. In view of the current political scenario in Junglemahal, where the Maoists are at backfoot, the CPI (Maoist) concentrated on carrying out urban warfare and several of its senior cadres have taken shelter in and around the city," added the official.

Police point to the recent protest by slum dwellers at Nonadanga against their eviction. Police said Debolina Chakraborty, a leader of the pro-naxal outfit named Matangini Mahila Samity, and some other leaders took part in the campaign. Mukherjee's lawyer Subhashish Roy, however, dismissed the allegations saying the police are yet to present to the court the 43 letters that were claimed to have been seized from his client. "In the seizure list, police have written that they have recovered 43 letters from Abhishek. But this is an allegation and police have to prove it."

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