Odisha cops nab wanted Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda

Bhubaneswar: In a major breakthrough, the Odisha police has arrested the state’s top Maoist leader, Sabyasachi Panda alias Sunil, from Berhampur city, nearly 180 km from here, state DGP Sanjeev Marik said on Friday.

The rebel leader, allegedly involved in the killings of 25 security personnel and 34 civilians, was held at around 1 am on Thursday night from a “rented” house.

Acting on intelligence information, a police team nabbed the 48-year-old fugitive rebel leader after raiding a hideout in Berhampur city late last night, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told the state Assembly on Friday.

After the arrest of Panda, the chief minister was briefed about the development by top officials, including Director General of Police Sanjeev Marik.

The arrest of the hardcore rebel leader is a major achievement for the state police, Marik said.

Sabyasachi Panda alias Sunil alias Sarat, who formed Odisha Maobadi Party in 2012 after being expelled from CPI-Maoist, was allegedly involved in over two dozen cases, including the attack on Nayagarh armoury in 2008 in which 14 police personnel were killed.

A graduate in Mathematics, Panda had joined CPI (Maoist) in late 1990s and played an active role in the banned outfit to become the Secretary of Odisha State Organising Committee of Maoists.

He is also an accused in the gunning down of VHP leader Laxmanananda Saraswati and his four disciples at an ashram in communally sensitive Kandhamal district in August 2008, police said. The killing had triggered largescale violence and riots in Kandhamal and elsewhere in Odisha.

Panda, who virtually controlled Naxal activities for several years in south Odisha, including Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Nayagarh and Rayagada districts, was also involved in an attack on R Udayagiri jail, police said.

The Maoist leader, who was also allegedly behind the abduction of two Italian nationals in 2012, had turned down several proposals to surrender before the police.