The family and neighbours of CoBRA personnel Rajeshwar Singh Manhas, who was abducted by Maoists after a gunfight with the security forces on April 3 in Chhattisgarh, erupted in jubilation on Thursday after it emerged that he has been released by his captors.
Vikrant, Manhas’s brother-in-law, told THE WEEK that the commander of Manhas’s battalion called his sister and informed her that her husband is with them.
Her parents live in the nearby Mishti village. The couple have a five- year- old daughter.
“He (the Commander) told her he is safe and they are taking him for a mandatory medical check-up,” he said.
He said that as soon as the news of his brother-in-law’s release leaked, there was jubilation in the family and the village at Barnai, Akhnoor in Jammu.
Manhas has served the CRPF for the last 10 years and is highly respected by his neighbours in the village.
He had last spoken to his wife a day before he went missing in action in Chhattisgarh.
Yesterday, his family members and villagers staged a protest in Akhnoor and blocked the Poonch-Akhnoor highway, urging the Centre and the J&K administration to secure Manhas’s release.
The government then reached out to the CoBRA personnel’s family and assured them that Centre was working to secure his release and he would be back soon.
