PCPA secy picked up; police deny arrest

Kolkata, 3 Sep: Manoj Mahato, a top rung leader of the Maoist-backed People's Committee Against Police Atrocities was picked by the police from his home in Lalgarh area in West Midnapore district today, his family claimed.

Mahato, who is the cousin of jailed PCPA convener Chhatradhar Mahato and is the PCPA secretary, was picked up by plainclothesmen from his ancestral home at Birkar in Lalgarh police station area, his mother, Durga Mahato claimed.

After picking him up the plainclothesmen, who came on motorcycles, took him away towards the Pirakata police camp, his mother said.

"We immediately went to the camp and requested the officers to allow us to meet Manoj, but they said he was taken to Midnapore," she said, adding the family will now approach the Lalgarh police.

In Kolkata, state home secretary Samar Ghosh denied that Mahato had been picked up.

West Midnapore's superintendent of police also said, "I don't have any information on this."

Chhatradhar Mahato was arrested from the same village in September 2009.


(PTI)