Not without my husband cop abducted by naxals rescued by wife

    Bijapur, May 13 (PTI) 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 neighboringSukma 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 COR TKP
KRK KRK

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)