Mystery over missing Gadchiroli SPO deepens

Nagpur: Gadchiroli district cops still have no clue about the missing special police officer (SPO) Jaisingh Atla who has been untraceable for more than 48 hours now. Local sources claimed that Atla might have been killed by Naxals after having been kidnapped from his residence at Kondavahi village of Dhanora taluka in Gadchiroli on Tuesday.
Senior police officials are non-committal regarding Atla’s fate.He had been working as an undercover informer in the highly sensitive guerrilla zone for more than a year. Local sources claimed that a group of Naxals killed Atla in the jungle in the early hours of Tuesday after whisking him from his residence. They were angry that he was working as a police informer.
Inspector general of police, Nagpur and Naxal range, Ravindra Kadam stated that the security forces have not found any clue related to Atla despite exhaustive search operations in the adjoining villages and forests of Kondavahi village.
“The Naxals would have left behind the body if they would have killed him. It’s learnt that Atla generally remains away from home for a couple of days. He usually returns. So we are still hoping to see him back,” said Kadam.
He also stated that police have not heard anything from Atla’s family in the last 24 hours.
Senior officials attached to Dhanora police station visited Atla’s family after the SPO’s murder rumour started doing the rounds. They had also visited certain places where Atla’s body was learnt to be spotted by some of the local residents only to return empty-handed.
Prior to the latest incident, police were also left clueless regarding the fate of three girl students who studied at the village residential school at Laheri in Bhamragarh tehsil. Three boys and equal numbers of girls had gone missing last month from the school. The boys were traced at Chennai but there was no information regarding the girls. Police have refused to comment on the issue whether the girls have been taken away by Naxals to train them for the dalams.