‘Maoist’ gun factory busted in Odisha

Raipur: Police in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh have busted a country-made weapons factory in neighbouring Malkangiri district of Odisha, and arrested a Maoist sympathiser who was operating it to supply the arms to Naxals, police said on Sunday.

The action was taken based on the inputs provided by a Naxal identified as Madvi Joga (40), who was arrested from Gadiras police station area of Sukma on Friday, Sukma Superintendent of Police Shalabh Sinha told PTI.

Acting on a tip-off about the movement of the wanted ultra Joga near Rasavaya village, a team of police raided the spot on Friday and apprehended him, he said.

A muzzle-loading gun was recovered from the possession of Joga, who was an active as a member of Maoists’ Katekalyan area committee and carried a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his head, he said.

He was allegedly associated with the outlawed CPI (Maoist) since the past 7-8 years and tasked with supplying country-made guns to ultras in Sukma, he said.

“During his interrogation, he revealed that a home-run country-made gun manufacturing unit for supplying firearms to Naxals was being run by Maoist sympathiser Jagannath Barnai in Bhasriguda village in the neighbouring Malkangiri district (Odisha),” he said.

Later, a raid was conducted there in coordination with Malkangiri police and Barnai (45) was arrested, he said.

Police found two muzzle-loading guns, 10 barrels of guns, gun-butts, along with tools used for making weapons from his house, he said.

The investigation revealed that Barnai had supplied at least 35 muzzle loading guns to Naxals in Sukma in the last one year, Sinha said, adding that further investigation into the matter is underway.

(PTI)