By IANS,
Kolkata : Dismissing allegations by Maoists and human rights groups that top ultra leader Kishenji was “murdered in police custody”, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday reiterated that he died in a gunfight with security forces, and the government did not eliminate him in a “planned” way.
“You know that we did not eliminate Kishenji in a planned way. That took place in a certain situation… I was then in Delhi. Police did not know about the death either. Had they come to know, then they would have announced it earlier,” Banerjee told reporters at the state Secretariat here after announcing the surrender of Maoist woman leader Suchitra Mahato.
“We do not want any death, whether it is of a common man or any opposition. But that thing (Kishenji’s killing) had occurred,” She said.
According to the official version, Kishenji or Mallojula Koteswara Rao, a politburo member of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), died in a battle with paramilitary forces and state police in a forested region of West Midnapore Nov 24 last year.
Maoists and human rights groups, however, did not agree.
The Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) alleged that Kishenji was killed in a ‘fake encounter’ and Telugu poet and Maoist sympathizer P. Varavara Rao charged the state government with “‘murdering’ him in police custody”.
Kishenji, 55, had escaped four police traps since 2009, giving him a near iconic status.
The death of the rebel leader was seen as a major setback for the Maoists.