The phone number given by Naxalites to the media asking Union Home Minster P Chidambaram to call today for peace negotiations belongs to a police constable who was abducted by the rebels.
The Vodafone number 9734695789 belongs to Sisir Kanti Nag, the constable who had been abducted by the Naxalites demanding the release of the PCPA leader Chatradhar Mahato.
"The Vodafone SIM card was purchased from Kharagpur and it belongs to Nag. But right now it is impossible to say from which dealer it was purchased," a senior district police officer said on condition of anonymity.
"We are questioning the concerned constable and trying to find out the details," he said.
Nag's cell number in all probability is being used by Koteswar Rao, popularly known as Kishenji, and is the number on which Chidambaram has been asked to call at 5 pm, the officer said.
Nag and his colleague Siteshwar Prasad were abducted by the Naxalites from a bus at Tamajhuri in West Midnapore on September 26 demanding the release of Mahato. Nag was released later that night at Jamtalghera, about 50 km from Tamajhuri.
Kishenji, who contacts media frequently, has used as many as 18 different mobile phone numbers since June last year when the hunt for him was launched.
The Airtel number which was used by Kishenji when the hunt began belonged to a school teacher from Lalgarh who had lost his mobile, the police officer said.The teacher had lodged a complaint with police, he said.
While two of the numbers used by the elusive Naxalite leader to contact PTI belonged to Jharkhand, one to Andhra Pradesh and the rest to West Bengal.
"Most of the numbers used by Kishenji, belong to various people from Nadia, Hooghly and South 24 Pargans," the officer said.
"This is a very intelligent way to distract police from mainline investigation and the Naxalites have used this method carefully and tactfully," a senior intelligence officer added.
The Naxalite leader is known to move between Goaltore, Salboni, Lalgarh, Belpahari and neighbouring Jharkhand.
