Red Taliban beheads Jharkhand cop

NEW DELHI: In a bone-chilling demonstration of red terror, Left-wing extremists beheaded an officer of the Jharkhand police, Francis Induwar, who they had abducted five days ago. The officer���s mutilated body was found on the Ranchi-Jamshedpur highway on Tuesday morning.

CPI(Maoist) claimed responsibility for the brutal murder. ���Francis has been awarded death to protest police repression,��� a note found near the body stated.

Incidentally, Induwar���s beheading comes days after a local Maoist leader in Jharkhand sought that the officer be swapped for three arrested Maoist leaders ��� Kobad Ghandy, Chattradhar Mahato and Bhushan Yadav.

Union home minister P Chidambaram denied that any demand was communicated either to the Centre or the state government for a swap deal.

Reacting with outrage at the cold-blooded killing, the minister said that even if a swap demand had been made, there was no question of considering it. ���We are governed by the rule of the law. Prisoners are under custody of the court, we cannot swap prisoners with those who are outside the law, who take law into their own hands,��� he told a news channel.

���If there were any other genuine developmental demands that could have been considered. But the DGP tells me that no demand was placed upon the government. And all that they found was the mutilated body. They (Naxalites) had killed him in cold blood,��� said Mr Chidambaram.

Ranchi DIG R K Mallik told news agencies that Induwar���s body was identified and sent for post-mortem. ���Maoists killed him by slitting his throat.��� There were however some conflicting reports on the timing of Induwar���s murder, with intelligence inputs indicating that he may have been killed over two days back.

Induwar was abducted on the evening of September 30 from the Hembrum market in Khuti district, about 65 km from here, where he had gone to collect information from a contact. On Saturday, a person calling himself Samarji and claiming to be secretary of the Maoist South Chotanagpur Committee of Jharkhand put forward the conditions for releasing Induwar.

���The abducted police inspector of intelligence department is in our possession. He is safe. He will be released after arrested leaders ��� Kobad Ghandy, Chatradhar Mahato and Bhushan Yadav ��� are released,��� local newspapers had quoted Samarji as saying. Police suspect the role of the Kundan Pahan group in the killing. It is active in the border areas of Ranchi, Khuti and Jamshedpur.