The two are Purnendu Sekhar Mukharjee and Varanasi Subramaniam, both central committee members of the Communist Party of India-Maoist, lodged at the special central jail in Bhagalpur district, about 200 km from her.

"In letters to the jail authorities, they have formally requested for NHRC approval of their offer to donate their bodies for medical research," a jail official said.

According to jail officials, the letters have been forwarded to the inspector general (prison) to send it to the NHRC.

They also requested the jail authorities to contact counterparts in West Bengal in order to facilitate the donation of their bodies to any medical research institute after their death.

Superintendent of Jail Jitendra Kumar said Mukharjee and Subramaniam, in separate letters, requested for NHRC clearance of their request.

A top police official said it was the first time such an offer has come from Maoist leaders lodged in a state prison.

Kumar said the Maoist leaders have, however, made it clear they want to donate to an institute in West Bengal. Besides, they also want to donate their eyes to an eye hospital separately.

Subramaniam hails from Andhra Pradesh's Prakasam district and Mukharjee is from West Bengal's North 24-Parganas district. They are lodged in a special cell.

Subramaniam, 58, was arrested from Katihar district April 30 along with two CPI-Maoist central committee members Mukharjee, 68, and Vijay Kumar Arya by a joint police team of the Special Task Force and the district police. The Andhra Pradesh government had announced a cash reward of Rs.12 lakh on Subramaniam's head.

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