Malkangiri (Orissa):
A day after his release from Maoist captivity, Malkangiri Collector R Vineel Krishna said on Friday that gun wielding men and women were keeping a watch on him round-the-clock but he was not tortured during his nine-day captivity.
Asked by reporters here to narrate his experience in Maoist captivity, 30-year-old Krishna said, "I can never forget that in my life" and made it clear that he was not tortured either physically or mentally.
"Only gun-wielding men and women were keeping watch on me round the clock," he said.
He said radio was the only means through which the Maoists could come to know about the world outside the jungle.
The district official said he and the junior engineer had been kept in a cut-off area surrounded by dense forest and shifted them from one place to other at least four times.
They were providing him rice and dal and boiled water, Krishna said.
Asked whether he had written a letter immediately after his abduction at gun point, he replied in the negative. "I was simply asked to write the letter," he said.
Krishna said the Maoists included Oriya, Telugu and some from Chhattishgarh, but he could not recognise their leader.
Armed cadres used to stay at a distance keeping vigil outside.
To a question, he said he was ready to work in the district if the state government allowed him to continue here.
"As long as people of the district and the government want, I'll continue," Krishna told reporters here.