‘Not without my husband’; wife rescues cop abducted by Naxals

Bijapur, May 13

A woman in Chhattisgarh trekked through a forest for four days, tracked down a group of naxals, and persuaded them to release her policeman husband.

When asked what made her undertake this perilous mission, Sunita Kattam’s reply was that she decided not to sit on her hands and worry, but to act.

Santosh Kattam (48), a constable posted at Bhopalpatnam police station in Bijapur, was kidnapped from Gorana village in the first week of May.

“He left house on the evening of May 4 to buy groceries and did not return,” Sunita (39) told PTI on Wednesday.

Two days later she learnt that naxals had abducted her husband. She was a little skeptical at first, as Santosh had left home without telling anyone on a few earlier occasions too.

But after it was confirmed that naxals were behind his disappearance, she informed police and also started contacting her acquaintances in the area to find his whereabouts.

“I decided not to think too much and make efforts on my own to free him,” she said.

She was no stranger to the naxal menace as her family lives in Jagargunda area in the neighbouring Sukma district, a hotbed of rebel activities.

On May 6, Sunita, her 14-year-old daughter, a local journalist and some villagers entered a forested area to find her husband.

She left her two other children with their grandmother at their house in Bijapur Police Line.

“We rode on motorcycles and walked through rough terrain for four days before finding the naxals who had abducted my husband on May 10,” she said.

Next day, Maoists held a ‘Jan-adalat (kangaroo court) to decide Santosh’s fate. That was when Sunita could see her husband for the first time in six days.

“The villagers and I persuaded naxals to release him,” she said.

According to local sources, before releasing him, naxals warned Santosh that he will face consequences if he continued to serve in the police force.

When asked how did she muster courage to venture into the forest on the trail of naxals, Sunita said, “A woman can go to any lengths to safeguard her husband.” 

Inspector General of Police (Bastar Range) Sundarraj P said after receiving information of Kattam’s abduction, the police were trying to trace him through various sources but did not launch any operation to ensure that naxals did not harm him.

Kattam’s family was also trying to secure his release, he said.

After he returned to Bijapur on May 11, his medical examination was conducted and his statement was being recorded, the IG added. — PTI

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