The national general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist Red Star) K. Ramachandran could not be traced since Sunday afternoon after he arrived in the city.
Pointing out that the purpose of Mr. Ramachandran’s visit was to lead a central delegation of the party to Bhangar in South 24 Parganas in support of the ongoing agitation against setting up a power grid, the State leadership of the party alleged that police was “behind the disappearance” of the party leader.
“Mr. Ramachandran was scheduled to lead a Central delegation of our party to Bhangar and meet the family members of the two locals who were killed in police firing. In a bid to prevent the issue gaining prominence at the national level, we suspect that the State police had kidnapped him,” the Pradeep Singh Thakur, State general secretary of the party told The Hindu .
He also said that despite being repeatedly asked to track the tower location of Mr. Ramachandran the Kolkata Police has not taken any action so far and has denied its involvement in the matter.
The development comes at a time when the State government is suspecting that Naxalite elements are fuelling the agitation Bhangar has lodged FIR’s against several leaders of CPIML (Red Star) who are involved with the agitation. However, Joint Commissioner of Kolkata Police (Crime) Vishal Garg said that he was “unaware of the matter.”
