The three Girijans and members of the ruling Telugu Desam party of G.K. Veedhi mandal were released by the CPI (Maoist) after 10 days of captivity, on Wednesday night.
The Maoists handed over TDP mandal unit president Mamidi Balayya Padal, party senior leader Vandalam Balayya and district committee member Mukkala Mahesh to the Girijan employees association leaders after holding a Praja court in interior forest area of Chitrakonda area in Odisha.
They were told not to get associated with any political party and to get themselves involved in the anti-bauxite mining agitation of fellow Girijans.
The Maoists who found the bauxite mining as a major issue to regain the lost ground among the Girijans, abducted the three from Kothaguda village near G.K. Veedhi on the night of last Monday. They demanded the Government making their stand clear on not exploiting the bauxite in the Agency and the TDP leaders and workers to quit the party and join the agitation against bauxite mining proposal.
It had extended the deadline by a day from October 13 after former Tribal Welfare Minister M. Manikumari resigned from the three-member committee of the party for Paderu Assembly segment while Girijan employees association continued its effort to get the kidnapped men released and families of the victims and political parties made appeals.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had assured the victims' families that the three men would be brought back safely, when they met him during his visit here on October 12.
Mr. Padal after the release told reporters at G.K. Veedhi that the Maoists told them not to have any association with any party but to participate in the anti-bauxite mining agitation. They were taken to a place very deep in the forests, he added.
