Kolkata, Oct 26 (IANS) Police officer Atindranath Dutta, held hostage and later freed in a swap for 14 women cadres by Maoist rebels, was Monday summoned to the state police’s Criminal investigation Department (CID) headquarters and quizzed for six hours about his 51-hour captivity with the extreme Leftwing rebels.
CID sources termed Dutta’s questioning from 2 pm to 8 pm here as a routine exercise.

However, a senior police officer said Dutta was also asked questions pertaining to his stint as officer-in-charge of Banspahari police outpost that preceded his transfer to the Sakrail police station, also in West Midnapore district.

Another police source said CID sleuths had gone to Banspahari and Sankrail to get information about the situation during Dutta’s tenure there.

Dutta is understood to have told the CID officers that he had never seen Maoist top leader Koteshwar rao alias Kishanji face to face during his captivity as the CPI-Maoist leader always had his face covered with a towel.

Dutta was abducted by the Maoists at gunpoint last Tuesday. The ultras freed the police officer Thursday evening and handed him over to a group of journalists in Domohoni jungle in West Midnapore district. In exchange, the state government did not oppose the bail pleas of a group of women charged with being Maoist sympathisers.