New Delhi:
Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday made it clear that there was no demand from Naxals for any swap of prisoners for the policeman whose body with severed head was found this morning in Jharkhand.
Terming the act as "cold blooded" murder, Chidambaram said, "If the Naxals have any demand they should place their demand. But cold blooded murder is simply not acceptable. I condemn it."
He was reacting to reports that Naxals wanted to swap arrested Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy in exchange of policeman Francis Induwar, kidnapped on September 30. His body was found this morning at Raisha Ghati about 12 km from Ranchi.
"The (Jharkhand) DGP has told me that there was no demand for a swap of prisoners. Besides, we are governed by the rule of law and prisoners are under the custody of court. We cannot swap prisoners with those who are outside the purview of law, who take the law in their hands," he said.
Asked whether this action of Naxals came ahead of a full-fledged crackdown against Maoists planned by the Centre, he said, "We have not announced anything, we have not said anything. These are media speculations.
"All we have said is that following our assessment that the Naxalite threat is a grave threat to internal security, the Centre will provide support to the state police forces to continue their operations against the Maoists," he said.