Bodos free Andhra engineer in Assam

Hyderabad,Nov 17: Polagani Krishna Rao, a civil engineer working with a private firm, who was kidnapped by Bodo Militants in Assam on October 16, has been released on Tuesday morning at Karigaon in Kokrajhar district at 9.15 a.m.He is stated to be safe, but exhausted and looked frail.Rao was the project manager with the Gayatri Project Limited Company belonging to Andhra Pradesh which is engaged in the four-lane highway construction in Kokrajhar district.The 45-year-old engineer, hailed from Chandrada village in Gudlavalleru mandal in Krishna district, and was working at many places before and has been executing works on National Highway No. 37 in Assam for the past 10 months.

Earlier, he had worked with Madhucon Constructions.Krishna Rao spoke to his wife Rajeshwari,son Karthik and daughter Prasanna between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. before being abducted by the Militants on October 16 at around 10.30 a.m.He was put up at a makeshift residential quarters in Joipur village in Kokrajhar district of western Assam. Subsequently,the Army called up Rajeshwari and informed her of the news but she failed to understand Hindi.The family members approached Gannavaram MLA, Dasari Balavardhan Rao who has been actively pursuing the issue with the State Government to push the Assam Government to secure the release of Rao.Animal Husbandry Minister K Parthasarathi and other Congress leaders have been meeting the family members and assuring them of the State Government efforts to secure the release of Rao from the Militants belonging to the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland.

He was kidnapped from the Highway construction site in Kokrajhar district, 200 kilometres from Guwahati Chief Minister K Rosaiah also spoke to Assam government officials who assured him that they would spare no efforts to rescue Rao. It was also learnt that the Militants did not immediately put out any demands. Rosaiah reportedly spoke to his Assam counterpart Tarun Kumar Gogoi over telephone and requested him to make an all-out efforts to secure Krishna Rao’s release. The Assam Chief Minister told Rosaiah that his government had constituted special teams for the safe release of Rao.