A Maoist group, said to be active in the jungles of Wayand district in northern Kerala, has alleged that the ongoing ‘Operation Kubera’ of the Kerala police against the ‘blade mafia’ (a term used to denote loan sharks) is a farce.
The group, People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army, which had traded shots with the police last week, alleged in a pamphlet that the police were colluding with the blade mafia. It reproduced excerpts of purported conversations between a police officer and a loan shark in which the latter was tipped off about an impending raid on him.
The group has warned the loan sharks of strong punishment and asked the public to join its fight against the blade mafia.
The Wayand district witnessed the largest number of farmer deaths in the State during the slump in the prices of farm produce, particularly cash crops, some five years ago. Cash crops such as coffee, mostly cultivated by ‘settler farmers’ from southern Kerala using loans, had seen a long slump in prices, leaving them heavily indebted.
Much of the loans had been from the blade companies. The government had ordered a moratorium on repayment of bank loans and also implanted a financial relief package, but it applied only to loans from the formal channels.