Chatradhar Mahato, face of Lalgarh movement backed by the Maoists, appeals for release from jail; release not unlikely

Chatradhar Mahato, leader of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA) – the group backed by the Maoists in West Bengal’s Lalgarh – has written to the state government seeking release from jail.

Mahato has been sentenced to life imprisonment for anti-national activities. He was arrested in 2009 and has been lodged in jail for the past 10 years. Mahato was dramatically arrested by the police in 2009 as they posed as journalists who had gone to interview him.

Four persons including Chhatradhar Mahato, convener of the PCPA, were convicted by a court in West Midnapore district for sedition under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 2008. It was the first case in West Bengal where a court has held the accused guilty under UAPA, which was implemented in the state in 2009. He was later declared as a political prisoner.

During the former Left Front government rule, Mahato was an influential leader of the PCPA and the face of the Lalgarh movement in the forested region of Purulia, Bankura, West Midnapore and Jhargram together known as Jangalmahal. He had reportedly held several meetings with the CPI-Maoist politburo member Kishanji, who was later killed in an encounter with the security forces.

Now, Chatradhar Mahato, in his letter written to the government has said that he had been wrongfully jailed by the then Left Front government. He has also written that since he was the sole breadwinner of his family, they are now suffering financially due to his absence, and if he is released he can work again and take good care of his family.

Though Mahato has been jailed for ten years now, the Trinamool Congress government’s position on him has become softer. Jobs have been promised to his two sons. His wife is also known to have grown close to the Trinamool Congress.

The administration will be taking cautious steps to consider the appeal though, it is learnt. So far, almost all similar appeals from other prisons have been turned down. The procedure to consider the appeal of prisoners is decided by a committee, comprising the Director General of state police, home secretary, principal secretary of the home department and the police commissioner among other officers.

The committee has to study the appeal and take a decision considering whether the person’s chances of getting involved in similar activities if released, her/his conduct while serving sentence and so on. However, such moves are usually political decisions and the same applies to Mahato’s case.

Ranjit Sur, a central secretariat member of the Association for the Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), in an interview had said a few months ago that he had learnt that the Mahatos, as a group, have taken an anti-Trinamool Congress position and pro-BJP stance, leading to the former’s soft position on Chhatradhar Mahato. “Among personal friends, Chhatradhar has said that he will join the Trinamool if he comes out. He has theorized this somewhat – the need to stop the BJP, etc. But the underlying calculation is clear: there is no mass movement, so he will be rotting in jail for his entire life. This is his way out,” Sur had said in the interview in January 2019.

Under this backdrop, chances of Chhatradhar Mahato’s appeal being cleared seems more likely.