22 Chhattisgarh villagers nabbed for holding officials hostage

RAIPUR - A total of 22 villagers in Chhattisgarh’s coal-rich Raigarh district were detained Friday for questioning about their alleged role in holding officials of a private company hostages, a police official said.

A strong contingent of police stormed into Darramunda village Friday and took 22 villagers to a police station to interrogate them for their role for holding hostage three senior officials of S.K.S. Ispat and Power Ltd. Thursday. The officials had gone to the village, some 220 km from Raipur, for a survey work of a proposed 1,200 MW coal-fired power plant.

“The villagers have been detained clearly for their role in keeping three officials hostage for eight hours, blackening their faces, forcing them to do sit-ups in the scorching 46 degrees Celsius temperature and later clashing with police team that reached the village to rescue the officials,” Dhruv Gupta, Raigarh’s acting superintendent of police, told IANS over phone.

Gupta said the three officials led by general manager (projects) K. Hariharan, went to the village Thursday early hours for holding talks with the villagers about the project. But the entire populace of around 250 took hostage of all the three officials at around 9 a.m. and the officials managed to escape only 5 p.m. after a strong police squad reached the village and resorted to a baton charge to disperse the mobs.

“Police are interrogating the villagers and will initiate strong legal action against those found to be involved in the abduction, assault and clash with police,” he added.