Suspected leftwing ultras abducted one official of a construction company from Murki village of Churchu block on Saturday night and also set on fire three vehicles belonged to the Inder Gope Construction Company of Hazaribagh, which is engaging in construction work at two important inner roads of this Naxal prone block.
Abducted person has been identified as Saroj Yadav and is the manager and a relative of the construction company owner Inder Gope, officials said. According to sources, on Saturday night Yadav had to stay back in village Murki as the JCB of the company became inoperative suddenly. He was sleeping in the house of one Kishun Mahto. At midnight about a dozen left ultras came and captured him. They then torched the JCB, a tractor and a trailer kept there.
Sources further informed that the Naxals departed from the village towards the Bedam forest area which was at the border of Hazaribagh and Bokaro districts. Police had started search operation to rescue Yadav. Inder Gope, owner of the company claimed he had just started the road construction work there and till date neither any demand of levy was made nor anyone disturbed the work.
Meanwhile, SP Akhilesh Jha said that their first priority was safe the release of the abducted person and then they would go into other aspects. He informed that keeping in view of the road construction work police had deployed a police team there and a few days ago one DSP had himself talked about the safety measures with the company owner who had made no complain. In the Naxal prone Churchu block the company has taken construction work of Aango-Bedam road and Bedam-Murki road. Both roads are about 3 km long. The company has constructed its temporary site at Bedam where its staffs and workers normally stay and vehicles are kept.
No specific group of left ultras has taken the responsibility yet but according to sources the CPI (M) ultras might have done it. Police are also investigating on the same line as one identified CPI (M) loyalist was said to be working in the company. The police officer further informed the incident clearly pointed out that the Naxals were on backfoot and through this type of cowardice act they only wanted to re-establish their terror which was not possible.