Story of Communist Terrorism - Chapter 6

During the trip to the Police Station, Vikram gets a call from Devika informing him that the clip of him rough handling women, a handicapped man, and threatening students has gone viral. She advises him to not bring Professor Prakash to Ambuja for the investigation.

In Delhi, the local police station is swarmed with reporters asking about the whereabouts of the Professor. The station’s DCP (Deputy Commissioner of Police) asks Vikram to not bring the Professor to the station and instead makes him return him to his home.

DGP Chandrakar informs Vikram that he will have to attend a Supreme Court hearing as an NGO has asked for all charges to be removed and an anticipatory bail for Prakash.

The preliminary hearing of the case takes place in the judge’s chamber. Both the prosecutor and the defendant express their sides and the judge agrees to the defendant’s request of granting a bail and transferring all legal proceedings to Delhi.

The next hearing takes place in a courtroom packed with people. It is discovered that the Police never made any formal request to the mobile service provider to present the call detail records of the phone; due to which the defence’s request to rule the phone as invalid evidence is granted.

The defendant also plants the idea in the Courtroom that the phone might have been placed by the Police in the room where Rudra Samant was staying. The defendant then questions Keshav about Vikram’s angry outburst over Rudra which resulted in him being heavily injured and admitted.

The defendant proposes there is no strong evidence that suggests that Maoist-related documents found in Rudra’s room belonged to him. The Court passes the judgement that the case was based on a shoddy investigation and as a result, charges against Prakash will be dismissed.

After being back in Ambuja, Bhoomi announces that a wounded Mangtu, who is now admitted to the hospital, and two dead Maoists have been found by the CRPF patrol.

The investigating team along with Keshav then head towards the hospital and Vikram gets shocked after seeing the hospital’s condition; people on the road, overbearing stench, people lying on bare floors in the hospital, rats skittering around.

Bhoomi responds this is due to too few resources in the hospital. A doctor discloses Mangtu is in a coma and there is no definite time for when he will be awake.

Keshav gets a call informing him that villagers have blocked the main road outside the town and are demanding the bodies of Naxalites to be returned to them; for they think they were killed in a fake encounter done by the Police.

The legal procedure is that the bodies cannot be handed over till a post-mortem has been conducted. Vikram and Bhoomi head towards the protest spot to handle the situation.

It is very difficult for the government to maintain public services in Maoist areas because the fear of being attacked by the Naxalites is always present in both the building and the people working in the building.

One such service is the healthcare sector. To encourage the people to work in this area, the Government has introduced incentives in the form of funds and other benefits for the people who will work in these areas.

Some benefits include a high salary, comfortable living accommodations, security, and increasing the scores of working medical students in certain subjects.

Hospitals in such areas are important for both villagers and security personnel as the threat of attack is always present. For the same reason of providing healthcare to injured soldiers and ailing village people, 4 field hospitals were set up in the Maoist hotbed, Bastar, a district of Chhattisgarh in the year 2015.

The charges of Prakash Padmanabh, the Urban Naxalite of the book, were dismissed due to insufficient evidence, in real life many well-known and highly connected people like Prakash have been arrested for their Maoist links.

Anand Teltumbde, a professor at the Goa Institute of Management, was arrested in Mumbai for his alleged links with the Naxalites. The police had seized letters from Anand’s custody which talked about a detailed plot to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The letter mentioned ‘Comrade Anand,’ based on which and other pieces of evidence, Teltumbde was arrested by the police. Anand Teltumbde’s brother, Milind Teltumbde was a top Naxal Cadre of Maharashtra with a reward of Rs 50 lakh on his head.

Milind Teltumbde was involved in many major Naxal activities and was a leader amongst the Maharashtra Naxalites. Along with Milind, 26 other Maoists were shot dead by the Police in 2021.

Hany Babu, an associate professor in the Department of English at Delhi University was arrested in Mumbai as a suspect of the Bhima Koregaon violence Case and for having links with the Maoists.

According to the National Investigation Policy (NIA), Hany Babu was propagating Naxal activities and Maoist ideologies, he was also a co-conspirator with the other arrested in the Bhima Koregaon violence Case.

Sudha Bharadwaj, a lawyer, and activist was arrested under the same Bhima Koregaon violence Case as one of the provokers of the case.

She was arrested by the Police under the charges of recruiting members for the CPI-Maoist, providing funds for the banned terrorist organization and meeting undercover members of the illegal Party.

The next chapter consists of the death of two major characters in the story, both unexpected and out of the blue.