Former Communist Party of India MLA Manish Kunjam, who returned on Thursday after delivering medicines to abducted Sukma district collector Alex Paul Menon, said the IAS officer's health was "stable".
Kunjam, who rushed medicines to Menon on behalf of the Chhattisgarh government on Tuesday, told media persons in Ramaram village on way to Sukma that he was told that the collector's condition was stable.
The state government on Tuesday rushed medicines for Menon through Kunjam hours after the Maoists informed them that Menon was "critically ill".
"Since I am not mediating between the Naxals and the government, I cannot tell you what would be the future course of action on part of the ultras," Kunjam, who was asked by the rebels earlier to act as a mediator, said.
When asked whether he was carrying any special message for the collector's wife Asha Menon, Kunjam said he would share this information only with her.
Kunjam, who left on April 24 with medicines from Sukma to Tadmetla forest, was supposed to return on Wednesday evening. However, the delay in his return gave some anxious moments to senior government officials and a search was launched to trace him.
When asked about the delay in return, Kunjam, who also happens to be the president of the All-India Adivasi Mahasabha, said that he halted at Mesma village on Wednesday night on the request of villagers there.
Meanwhile, former National SC/ST Commission Chairperson B D Sharma, one of the mediators chosen from the Maoists' side, has arrived in Raipur, while another interlocutor Prof G Hargopal is likely to reach later in the day.
