By IANS,
Kolkata : Koteshwar Rao alias Kishenji, leader of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), has called a 48-hour shutdown from Sep 13 in eight states demanding a probe into what he alleged was a “cold blooded murder” of party colleague Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad by Andhra Pradesh Police.
The shutdown will be observed in West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, in Gadchiroli, Bhandara and Chadrapur districts of Maharashtra and in Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh.
Kishenji held Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah responsible for Azad’s death on July 2 and demanded their resignation.
“We demand the resignation of Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K.Rosaiah and Director General of Police Girish Kumar as we hold them responsible for Azad’s murder,” a recorded statement of Kishenji heard by IANS said.
“Azad’s post mortem report quoted in a national weekly revealed that he was shot from a distance of 7 cm. So there is no doubt that it was a case of cold blooded murder by the Andhra Pradesh SIB,” Kishenji said.
Referring to Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s statement at a rally in Lalgarh that Azad was murdered, Kishenji said: “Mamataji didn’t change her statement and Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee supported her. It seems that the government is also accepting that Azad was murdered.”
“So if Azad is murdered, then how is Chidambaram still in the chair of the union home minister? This is unconstitutional and he should resign immediately,” the CPI-Maoist politburo leader said.
Demanding intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in any dialogue between the government and the Maoists, Kishenji said: “The prime minister should first make his stand clear – whether he wants talks with the Maoists or not.”
The Maoists, however, will not write any letter to the central government directly for talks, a proposal made by the prime minister. “Azad wrote a letter to the Centre and the Centre along with Andhra Pradesh state government killed him in cold blood.”
“Still we are ready to accept the prime minister’s offer for talks if he orders a judicial inquiry by a three-member committee of retired judges,” he said while ridiculing Chidambaram’s condition of abjuring violence for 72 hours.
“We had given the proposal of a ceasefire for 72 days and then again for two months but that didn’t have any effect on the government because the union home minister is not keen to have a dialogue,” Kishenji claimed.