From a member of the local guerrilla squad to an instructor to new Maoist recruits in the Darbha area of Bastar, Maoist leader Hurra was moving up steadily since he joined the Communist Party of India’s (Maoist) military wing, the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army in 2010.
However, one night in the second week of June this year, he surprisingly found himself under custody of his own party men.
“They [Maoists] tied my hands and started interrogating me about the surrender of Kiran Potam [an associate of Hurra who had surrendered to the police in May this year]. They said that I was a close friend of Kiran and accused me of helping him to surrender to the police,” Hurra told The Hindu .
Despite disparate clarifications and requests, Maoists incarcerated Hurra inside a cave in the Bargam forest on the Sukma-Dantewada border.
“For next six days, I was kept there and they [Maoists] kept interrogating and torturing me,” he added.
Hurra was not the only leader accused of helping Kiran Potam in the Maoist party. Senior Maoist leader Hemla Bhagat, Badaru, Kosi and Hinge were also “detained” by the Maoists under the same allegation and kept in captivity in different parts of Sukma and Dantewada districts.
On June 22, the rebels killed Hemla Bhagat and threw his body near Nihadi village.
The news of Bhagat’s killing had reached Hurra and he had understood that he would meet the same fate.
“On the night of June 24, there was heavy rain in the area. It was sixth day of my custody and I was ill. But when everyone was sleeping including my sentries, I somehow managed to escape from the cave,” Hurra recollected.
“I could hardly walk because of my bad health and also the forest was too thick and it was raining heavily. I kept on drinking dirty water. They [Maoists] were following me but I somehow managed to reach my village Kisanpal,” he added.
Despite reaching his home, Hurra knew that the Maoists would find and kill him because they had killed Badaru as well.
Kosi had also managed to escape but she was apprehended by the Maoist militia members near Gotgul village and killed.
It was when he had lost all hopes help came for Hurra from the most unexpected quarter.
A team of the Dantewada police reached his village and safely rescued him to the police headquarters.
“Had we been late by a few hours, the Maoists would have killed him. We got some inputs about him being in the village and we launched an operation in heavy rains. The Maoists were following him and reached his place hours after we rescued him. He is extremely lucky to be alive as other four Maoists, who were picked up by the Maoists under same allegations, were killed,” Dantewada District Superintendent of Police Kamlochan Kashyap told The Hindu .
Police gave Hurra an option of surrender and he accepted it. He now stays in police lines in Dantewada and helps police in conducting anti-Maoist operations.
“Life in forest as a Maoist was hard but I did not dislike it. But this life is better. In fact this life is given to me by the police and I am extremely thankful to them,” said the former Maoist who also worked as the commander of the Maoist attack squad in the Munger area of Bastar.
