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Bhubaneswar ( Orissa) : Orissa Government, which is trying very hard to check the growth of leftwing insurgency, on Friday got a huge success with police men arrested Saswati Das, wife of Sabyasachi Panda, one of the most wanted Maoist leaders of India.
The policemen in State capital with the help of elite Special Operation Group Jawans, arrested Das from an undisclosed locations at Balianta area, 20 km away from the city and interrogating her to know the details of her activities.
Apart from this, three more suspected Maoists have also been arrested, sources said.
Police sources said that cash of Rs 4 lakh, laptop and few Maoists leaflets and literatures were recovered from her possession. The arrest came as very big blow to Sabyasachi, who ruled entire forest areas of Orissa.
Das, wife of Panda, State secretary, CPI (Maoists) is a very active member of the outlawed CPI (Maoists) Orissa State committee and looking after the women wing.
“As we suspect she is wife of Sabyasachi, she might worked in highest level of the outlawed outfit,” a senior police official said.
“We are interrogating her to know details,” he said adding several senior police officials would also interrogate her later in the day.
The development came as a befitting replay to the BJP’s allegation that the BJD is very soft on outlawed CPI (Maoists).
The arrest assumed very important in view of the increasing cases of Maoists related violence in the State.
The Union Home Ministry has agreed to provide another five battalions of CRPF to step up ant-Maoists operation in the State.
Meanwhile, a statewide high alert has been sounded following the arrest. Police sources are very apprehensive that the outlawed outfit might resort to violence as part of retaliation.
“We have asked all our senior officials in Maoists infected districts including Malkangiri, Rayagada, Koraput, Gajapati few other areas to remain high alert following the arrest,” a Home Department official said.
The lore around 43-year-old Sabyasachi has grown not just because of his reputation of being the most violent brain in the Maoists world, but also because he comes from a family of freedom fighters.
Hailing from Mayurjhalia village, Panda's father Ramesh Chandra is a three-time CPI (M) MLA from Ranpur in Nayagarh district.
His elder brother Siddharth, a Biju Janata Dal member, said that Sabyasachi studied in a village school and did his BSc in Mathematics from the SCS College in Puri.
Panda joined the Naxalite movement in 1991 and it was he who revived it in 1996 and gave the call for a full-scale armed struggle against the establishment.
He formed the Kui Labanga Sangha (Kui Youth Association), which later became a front organisation for the Andhra Pradesh-based People's War Group (PWG).
He next formed the Peoples Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA). Intelligence sources say, Panda went for the Nayagarh attack for two reasons:
He is alleged to have links with several white-collar people in Berhampur, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.
