61 cases pending againt Sabyasachi, says Odisha DGP

Reported by Chinmaya Dehury

Bhubaneswar, July 18:

Odisha Director General of Police (DGP) Sanjeev Marik today said that the top Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda, who was arrested in Berhamur late last night, was involved in about 61 cases, including the killing of Swami Lakshmanananda and Nayagarh armoury loot case.

“Panda is involved in as many as 61 cases. He has 21 cases pending against him in Rayagada district, 25 in Gajapati district, nine in Nayagarh district, two in Ganjam district and one in Berhampur,” said Marik at a press conference here today.

“He was carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his head,” he said.

The DGP informed that Panda was behind the killing of 25 security personnel and 34 common people.

Speaking on the arrest of Panda, Marik said that he was arrested from Bada Bazaar area of Berhampur town at around 1 am from a house where he was alone. One revolver, 10 mobile phones, one laptop, 500 grams of gold, two hard discs and five pen drives, besides Rs 2 lakh in cash were recovered from his possession, he added.

He, however, did not reveal much about the house where he was arrested citing that inquiry is on and everything will be clear after a few hours.

Marik, who was anointed as DGP recently, termed the arrest of Panda as a major achievement for the State police.

Officials said the top Naxal leader was held after inputs were received by security agencies on his movement.

Sabyasachi was first the secretary of the Vanshadhara Ghumusar Division of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and later worked as secretary of the Odisha State Organising Committee of the CPI (Maoist). Sabyasachi, who formed the Odisha Maobadi Party in 2012 following his break up with the CPI-Maoist, is presently the head of a new outfit called the CPI-Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ( CPI-MLM).