Sagar
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar: “I’m a communist ideologically, but not a Maoist,” whispered Kishore Jena, an undertrial lodged in Jharpada Special Jail.
Jena, who is an accused in the Nayagarh Armoury loot of 2008 and was one of the undertrials on hunger strike, was admitted to Captial Hospital Thursday evening. He was taken to SCB?Medical College and Hospital Sunday before being brought back to jail.
The undertrial, who was guarded by two armed policemen round-the-clock while in the 10-bed medicine ward of Capital Hospital, has become used to the presence of police personnel.
“In jail, even during our ‘mulakat’ with relatives, policemen are present. For ordinary criminals, the mulakat time is usually from 4 pm to 6 pm, whereas for undertrials, suspected to be Maoists, the time is in the afternoon,”
he said.
Jena said he was a farmer in Delang, Puri, and had been staying with his wife and two daughters before the CID picked him up.
During his school days in the ’80s, he was a member of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI). Later, he joined the Communist Part of India (ML). Jena said he was for a while also a part of the All India Students’ Association, which is the student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation. “It was not a banned outfit then,” he said.
The CID had picked him up because of his friendship with Sabyasachi Panda, the main accused in the Nayagarh Armoury loot, Jena said.
“I had met Sabyasachi when I was in SFI and we became good friends. It was a period when colleges and schools used to have left-leaning students and it was not uncommon for students to be a part of such organisations,” he said.
The undertrial said he never saw Sabyasachi after 1992 and had no knowledge about him or about what he was doing. Jena asserted that he never participated in any violent activity.
Police, in their chargesheet, had alleged that Jena bought a truck that was used in the armoury loot February 15 night in 2008 in Nayagarh. “It’s all fabricated. I’ve done nothing wrong,” Jena said.
