Bhubaneswar:
Maoists holding Malkangiri Collector Vineel Krishna hostage have gone back on their word that he would be released, making a fresh set of demands instead.
The Malkangiri Collector has been held hostage by the Maoists in Orissa for eight days now. After extensive negotiations between the government and the captors, Krishna was meant to be released on Tuesday night along with junior engineer, Pabitra Majhi, who too had been kidnapped from Malkangiri on February 16.
However, the Maoists now say they will hold on to Krishna till they get custody of five of their leaders who are currently in jail.
The new demands were conveyed in a letter sent through Pabitra Majhi, who returned home on Wednesday evening after being released by the Maoists. Three mediators appointed to interface with the Maoists had earlier been told that Krishna would also be released on Wednesday. But in the letter that Majhi carried, the Maoists said they wanted their leaders to be handed over to them in Malkangiri.
Among those leaders is Ganti Prasad, who was arrested in November and charged with sedition. Prasad's release was at the top of the Maoists' agenda. The government's acquiescence was obvious in the Orissa High Court on Wednesday when it said it could not prove charges against him. Prasad was granted bail.
The Maoists also want Padma, wife of a top rebel leader, to be released. These demands come in addition to other demands that had earlier been put before the Orissa government.
The Maoists say they need Prasad and four others to be escorted to Malkangiri in exchange for Collector Krishna.
Sources have told NDTV that the Maoists have now also demanded the release of top Maoist Sriramalu Srinivasulu, who is currently awaiting trial in Andhra Pradesh. His bail hearing has been put-off till tomorrow.
The three-member mediator team, headed by Professor G Haragopal, says the new demands would complicate matters. They have appealed to the Maoists to release the Collector immediately.
"We feel at this stage these additional conditions would complicate the matter. As mediators, we are appealing to the Maoist party to release the district collector within 24 hours i.e by 6 o'clock. This is the word they have given to the government of Orissa and they should honour the word they have given."
Majhi and Krishna were kept at a Naxal camp in the thick forests along the Andhra-Orissa border. On Tuesday night, Professor Haragopal said the two men would be released within 48 hours. When there was no sign of them on Wednesday morning, the Maoists communicated to the mediators that there was no cause for concern - the terrain had made it tough to leave the forest at night. But they later changed their mind.
Majhi held a press conference upon his return to his village and said that the District Collector was in good health.