Gobindpur villagers release captive Posco executives

The Posco India hostage crisis came to an end late on Friday night, with the Gobindpur villagers releasing the company executives they had taken captive earlier in the day, according to TV channels.

Three employees of Posco India, the Indian subsidiary of the South Korean steel major planning to set up a 12-million tonne steel plant in Paradip, had been detained by the villagers of Gobindpur, when they had gone there on Friday afternoon to canvas for land acquisition for the project.

All three employees are locals from the company's office in Kujanga, about 20 km from Paradip. The vehicle they were travelling in had also been damaged, sources said.

Earlier, the villagers had released one of the three detainees -- a lady executive named Rosalin Parida -- and the driver of the vehicle.

The other two employees who were held captive in Gobindpur in Dhinkia gram panchayat were Pranabananda Das, public relations officer of Posco's Kujanga office, and Debasish Swain, an executive.

A Posco spokesperson had told Business Standard that the company would not negotiate with the villagers unless the two detained employees were first released.

The police said the people who had detained the Posco employees were supporters of the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, the anti-Posco forum spearheading the agitation in the area against land acquisition by the company.

For the release of the employees, the captors had demanded a written statement from the company, assuring them that none of its employees would enter the gram panchayats of Dhinkia, Gada Kujanga and Nuagaon to canvas for land acquisition.

Both the collector and superintendent of police of Jagatsinghpur district rushed to Kujanga following the incident and initiated steps to contact the anti-Posco forum leaders to secure the release of the employees.

Posco, which has been facing stiff resistance from the local people on the issue of land acquisition for its project, had recently started direct negotiations with the villagers to buy the private land within its site following state government advice to this effect.

The company requires 4,004 acres land for the project, of which 3,566 acres is government land and 438 acres private land.