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The outlawed People's War in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday released all but one of the security personnel that they had abducted on Friday.
They freed constables K Srinivasa Rao, P Ramana Rao, Y Appa Rao and home guard K Venkat Rao in the forest areas of Visakhapatnam district at around 1700 hours (IST).
The cops walked for around eight hours before reaching the main road connecting Paderu with Anakapalle taluk at around 0100 hours. They then hitchhiked in a private goods van to reach Anakapalle taluk at around 0300 hours, a senior official said.
They were taken to Visakhapatnam at 0600 hours for a debriefing session with top police officials, after which they joined their families in Anakapalle.
The Naxalites, however, did not release the fourth constable, S Chittibabu, who was on the hit list for leaving them and joining the police force.
He was responsible for an encounter in the Chintapalli forest area in 1993. Several Naxalites were killed then and he received calls stating that he would be killed before August 25.
The four were taken hostage after the Naxalites blew up the Chodavaram police station and a sub-treasury office on Friday.
The Naxals looted the sub-treasury and also took 15 muskets and 243 rounds of ammunition from the police station.
Chittibabu would be interrogated before being released in a couple of days, the released policemen quoted the Naxalites as saying.
They recalled that on the day of the abduction, their captors made them walk for eight hours from Jallampalli till they reached a jungle hideout. They were well treated and made to move only in the night. The Naxalites did not convey any demands, they said.
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