The Hindu : `We were constantly under fear of being killed'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 23, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

`We were constantly under fear of being killed'

By Our Staff Reporter

GUNTUR DEC. 22. "We were continuously haunted by the fear of being killed. They repeatedly told us that they would not hesitate to kill us, as the police are killing innocent people in the garb of encounters. Of course, they also seemed to be reasonable when we put forth our arguments,'' said the two constables, P. Venkateswarlu and R. Venkateswarlu, who were released from captivity by naxalites belonging to the People's War (PW).

Talking to presspersons at the District Police Office here on Sunday, they said that they went to serve notices on the families of some militants on Thursday evening. The notices were served on some families of extremists in Ramapuram, Sarangapalli Agraharam and Srinagar. As the last three notices were to be served in Takkellapadu village, the constables went there.

However, they left the village as they could not find the relatives of the militants there. They went again at 6.30 pm. After the notices were served on the sister of K. Venkateswarlu of the village, the constables were intercepted by four unidentified persons and held captive. They took them to the outskirts of the village and questioned them if they had gone to the village to conduct recce to organise a swoop. The constables pleaded ignorance.

Later, they were taken blindfolded to a distance on foot. They said they were made to walk till midnight when they reached a place in the fields. The naxalites told them that the police were killing innocent people in the name of encounters. They also pestered the cops to provide them with the list of police informers. However, the constables informed them that no such information was available with them.

The naxalites, who snatched the motorcycle of one of the two constables, parked it at an unknown place. Later, they made the cops walk for some more distance and all of them reached inside the forest at 3.30 am. "We could not make out on which route they have take us there. They carried a tapancha. They fired once in the air only to show that it works and that it was not a toy,'' they said.

They gave the constables idlis and dosa and told them that they would be set free by that evening. While two persons used to guard the constables, two others used to go out of the forest to fetch food. One naxalite, however, used to go "somewhere'' and come back and hold confabulations with his colleagues. "The naxalites told us that they would have set us free, had the police not picked up the sarpanch and others from Takkellapadu. They also told us that they would not let us free till the sarpanch and others were freed from custody,'' they said.

The next evening, the naxalites took the cops to another place in the forest and offered food cooked with broken rice. "They asked us to taste the food. They told us this is the kind of food being consumed by the poorer sections of society,'' said the constables. The cops asked the naxalites to discuss all the issues with their superior officers as they were just constables who were attending to their duties. The naxalites who brought the newspapers the next day read the news stories on the agony of the family members of the kidnapped constables. Then they told the cops: "We are also human. But, the police are booking false cases against innocent people and those who have nothing to do with any crime."

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