Days after her engineer husband was kidnapped by Maoists in Chhattisgarh, Sonali Pawar made an emotional appeal for his release but eventually decided to search for him by herself and travelled to the dense Abujhmad forest, the den of Maoists, along with her minor daughter, according to sources.
The Maoists released the engineer Ashok Pawar and worker Anand Yadav unharmed on Tuesday evening but Sonali Pawar is still inside the forest. She is in touch with local journalists and police officials.
"Ashok Pawar and Yadav are currently kept at Kutru in Bijapur," Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Pankaj Shukla said on Wednesday. He said Sonali will soon reach Kutru to meet her husband.
A local journalist said that after releasing an emotional video asking Maoists to release her husband for the sake of their daughters, Sonali Pawar entered the Abujhmad forest along Bijapur and Narayanpur districts in Chhattisgarh to look for him.
"Sonali had contacted some locals with the help of journalists and (with their help) entered the Abujhmad forest from the border of Bijapur and Narayanpur," a Bijapur-based journalist, who works for a Hindi daily, told news agency PTI.
The journalist said Sonali Pawar had taken her younger daughter, who is two-and-a-half-year-old, along with her in the forest while her elder daughter, aged five, is with her family members.
The journalist said that she came into contact with Sonali Pawar through the construction firm which had engaged her husband, a day after he was abducted on February 11.
"Sonali, her two daughters, and other family members reached Bijapur on Sunday. She proceeded to Bedre on a forward journey. She is still inside the forest and is coming out to reach Kutru police station where her husband is kept," the journalist said.
The journalist said that she had met Mr Yadav, who was released unharmed along with Ashok Pawar on Tuesday evening.
"Yadav told me that Naxals gave him and the engineer Rs 2,000 each to reach their respective homes," she said.
According to police, Ashok Pawar is feeling traumatised and needed observation, she said.
Mr Pawar and Mr Yadav were working for a private construction company building a bridge on the Indravati river near Bedre-Nugur village in the Bijapur district when they were kidnapped.
The Pawar family hails from Madhya Pradesh.
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