"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should initiate the peace process himself. He should not depend on the Union Home Minister (P Chidambaram) as people have lost faith in the Home Ministry in this regard in view of the past experience," Agnivesh told reporters here.
"The Prime Minister alone can resolve the problem through genuine talks with the Naxalites," he added.
He alleged that CPI (Maoist) spokesman and politburo member Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad was killed in a "fake encounter" in Nagpur on July 1, 2010 and the CBI probe into the case had been "manipulated".
Azad was close to Maoist general secretary Pupalla Laxmanrao alias Ganapathi and regarded by many as the second- in-command.
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"I was offered to be an interlocutor for talks between the Centre and the Maoists by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram. Azad was the link between me and the leadership of the Naxalites of CPI (Maoist).
"I was in touch with Azad. His death was a setback to the entire talk and peace process. Had he not died, it could have brought a positive outcome in the Left-extremist movement in the country. It was a betrayal of peace process," he said.
According to Agnivesh, he had earlier met the Prime Minister demanding judicial probe into the incident. "He had accepted my demand then, but the government backed out later," Agnivesh said.