In the Naxal-hit Palamau Lok Sabha constituency, a former law-enforcer is pitted against a law-breaker whose name spread terror in the region till the time he was arrested by the police. Kameshwar Baitha, a front-ranking Maoist commander of his time, had won the seat in 2009 as a candidate of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, or the JMM, without campaigning for a day. Wanted by the police for at least 17 cases of murder and several other offences, Baitha was arrested in 2005, and had been languishing in jail since then. He was granted bail in 2011.
(Read more)
