Maoists Release Abducted BJD MLA Jhina Hikaka

Maoists Release Abducted BJD MLA Jhina Hikaka 26/04/2012

SIDDHARTHA SHANKAR MISHRA, BUREAU CHIEF, THESE DAYS, ODISHA
ODISHA NEWS/BHUBANESWAR

Maoists Thursday released Odisha legislator Jhina Hikaka in the state’s Koraput district after holding him captive for more than a month.

Reporters and photographers surrounded a relieved and healthy looking Hikaka as he came with a group of villagers to a mango garden at Balipeta, over 500 km from here, at about 10.30 a.m.

Emotions ran high when the 37-year-old Biju Janata Dal (BJD) legislator, wearing a green kurta, hugged his wife Kaushalya and seconds after both broke down in tears. He said he was in good condition and the rebels had treated him well.

Replying to a question from a reporter at the site on whether he had given an undertaking to the rebels that he would resign from the assembly and from the BJD, Hikaka said, “You will come to know about it.”

“We’re glad that he is safe and unharmed,” party colleague Baijayant Panda told reporters.

The leftwing extremists, who kidnapped Hikaka from Laxmipur in Koraput March 24, had Wednesday announced that a ‘praja’, people’s, court decided to release him after he apologised to the rebels and the local villagers.

A Maoist leader calling herself ‘Aruna’, in an audio message aired by a local television channel here, had said the decision to release him was taken after he promised to resign from the assembly and the primary membership of the ruling BJD.

"Hikaka will put in his papers after his release and has given a written undertaking to this effect in the 'praja court. He is all right and in good health," said Maoist leader Aruna of the Andhra-Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee (AOBSZC) in an audio message to the media.