Naxalites beheaded Jharkhand police inspector Francis Induwar who had been kidnapped by the ultras a week back reportedly demanding release of three arrested Naxalites including Kobad Ghandy in exchange for the officer, an act termed as unacceptable by the Centre today.
The body along with the severed head of 37-year-old Induwar, who worked in intelligence wing of the state police, was found near Raisha Ghati under Namkom police station area, about 12 km from here, Superintendent of Police (Ranchi Rural), Hemant Toppo, said.
Induwar, who is survived by his wife and three sons, had been kidnapped on September 30 by the Maoists from Hembrom Bazaar in Khunti district, about 70 km from here. The Naxalites later reportedly demanded release of three rebels -- Ghandy, Chhatardhar Mahato and Bhushan Yadav -- in exchange for the officer.
The demand was said to have been conveyed to the authorities by outfit's South Chhotanagpur Committee Secretary Samarji by a telephone call to a local newspaper.
In Delhi, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said that there had been no demand from the Naxalites for any swap of the arrested Naxalites but termed the beheading as not acceptable. “The cold blooded murder is simply not acceptable. I condemn it,” he said.
Ranchi Senior Superintendent of Police, Praveen Kumar also denied any communication from the Maoists for the release of the officer of the Special Branch of Jharkhand police. “The act was perpetrated out of sheer frustration following the arrests of several Naxalites, including their central leaders,” he said.
Police said a poster pasted on a tree on the Ranchi- Jamshedpur highway under the Bundu police station stated that the body was that of the police officer. Induwar has become the 339th policeman to be killed in Naxal violence in Jharkhand between January 2003 and October this year. The state’s 20 of the 24 districts are Naxalite-infested.
The Jharkhand Men’s Police Association took the body of the officer from the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences to the police headquarters after a post mortem.
