The West Bengal government's apparent inaction to trace a kidnapped police officer and a school teacher even four months after their abduction comes in for sharp criticism from several quarters.
In the backdrop of Orissa administration's prompt steps to secure the release of two abducted government officials, the West Bengal government's apparent inaction to trace a kidnapped police officer and a school teacher even four months after their abduction comes in for sharp criticism from several quarters.
IB officer Partha Biswas and school teacher Soumyojit Basu were abducted from Ayodhya hills in Purulia district on October 23 and they remain untraced till today.
"West Bengal Government's attitude is callous and they do not even try to find out what has happened to the IB officer and the school teacher," social activist Swami Agnivesh told PTI.
"Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik's approach to ensure early and safe release of Malkangiri Collector RV Krishna and junior engineer Pabitra Kumar Majhi was creditable," he said.
Blaming the Bengal government for its failure to locate the IB officer and the school teacher, Soumyojit's brother Avijit Basu said, "We met all senior government officers besides chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, but none has assured us anything.
"When we met DGP Naparajit Mukherjee, he said police do not have any clue to the whereabouts of the abducted persons and asked us to share information so that police could act on it."
Although Maoists disowned their role in the abduction and alleged that the two men were victims of police infighting, Basu said, "The day they went missing someone called us from my brother's mobile and, identifying himself as a Maoist, claimed that they had abducted Soumyojit. We informed this to police, but since then there has been no progress and we don't know whether they are now alive".
A senior police officer said today, "We don't have any information about the abducted persons till date. We spoke to the neighbouring states, but so far there has been no positive feedback."
Dandapani Mohanty, an interlocutor, said "The Orissa government has been very positive in their response and this will build confidence among the people and we are working hard to ensure the safe release of the abducted officials".
The chances of the safe release of the abducted Collector and junior engineer in Orissa were high, Mohanty said.
The Malkangiri collector and the junior engineer were abducted by Maoists when they were going to attend a development camp under Chitrakonda police station area in Malkangiri district of Orissa on February 16.
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