Injured Suchitra still holding out - The Times of India
Injured Suchitra still holding out
Sujay Khanra, TNN | Nov 26, 2011, 06.01AM IST
BURISHOLE: The black bag would have gone unnoticed hadn't some newspaper clippings slipped out of it. All the paper cuttings were of the March 10, 2011, edition of Bengali dailies - the day after dreaded Maoist leader Sashadhar Mahato was gunned down in an encounter. They were wrapped neatly along with a passport photo of Sashadhar. Police had no doubt it was the prized treasure of Suchitra Mahato, Sashadhar's widow.
The Burishole jungle isn't new to Suchitra, a feared Maoist squad commander and the leader of the Silda massacre. It was here, on August 24 last year, that she and Sashadhar had managed to give the joint forces the slip.
It was an equally big operation, coinciding with the then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's visit to Jangalmahal. This time, she is believed to be seriously injured, but has managed to hold out for two days. She dodged the forces so well that there was some doubt whether she was at all there, but the discovery of the bag on Friday made it certain.
It is perhaps Suchitra's fate that she was always mentioned in the same breath as Sashadhar, whom she fell in love with and later married. Now she faces "insinuations" regarding her relationship with her mentor Kishanji. But it is this couple that Kishanji trusted like no one else. When he seemed to be wary of his inner circle, he turned to Suchitra, say police.
Not much is known about the otherwise reticent Suchitra and that is what makes her different from the likes of Jagori Baske or Sobha Mandi. It also makes her among the most feared. Like Jagori, Suchitra had a meteoric rise through the Maoist ranks. She had joined the "Lal party" as a cook. By the time she met Sashadhar, she was already indoctrinated into the erstwhile People's War Group (PWG). A few years later Sashadhar proposed marriage and she walked into his Amelia home quite the coy bride. She even bore him a child, less than a year ago. It was Sashadhar's intense passion that she imbibed.
Husband-and-wife left home to join the PWG and later the amalgamated CPI(Maoist). Suchitra, like Sashadhar, was trained extensively in arms. They are believed to have created the now feared Bengal Maoist unit from scratch in Jangalmahal. Suchitra had a squad of her own. And if Burishole was any indication, she was entrusted with the over-all security of the clandestine meeting with Kishanji and the Bengal state leadership of the Maoists - clearly indicating the importance the party attached to her.
For people in the know of things, Kishanji has always had a soft-spot for his proteges. Sashadhar and Suchitra acted as guides to Maoist politburo member Venugopal, Kishanji's brother, when he visited Belpahari, Banspahari and Ektal in West Midnapore.
Indicted in at least 35 cases, Suchitra is believed to have played a key role in the abduction of Sankrail OC Atindranath Dutta in October 2009 and the Silda EFR camp attack.
Police say that Suchitra, now in her late thirties, can ride a motorcycle and handle an automatic firearm as good as any man. She has her own network among villagers, something which she painstakingly developed with Sashadhar. If she'd taken refuge at Dharmendra Mahato's home the other night, it was only because she could trust him with her life.
But someone in her inner circle did betray her. And its her personal possessions, including a stack of letters and a 160GB hard disc, which may hold the clue to where she is.