Odisha court allows Crime Branch to take Sabyasachi on remand

Odisha Sun Times Bureau

Nayagarh, July 24:

The SDJM court here today allowed the Crime Branch police to take Odisha’s most wanted Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda on remand.

The SDJM court had Wednesday admitted an appeal filed by the state Crime Branch  on Tuesday to take the Maoist leader on remand.

The Crime Branch (CB) had sought remand of Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda in connection with the attack on district headquarter town of Nayagarh in February 2008 and the murder of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati in August 2008. The Crime Branch has also moved a Phulbani court in the matter.

Sources in the Crime Branch said Sabyasachi is the prime accused in at least nine sensitive cases being probed by it.

The cases in question include the landmine explosion in which five people, including a pregnant woman and her three-year-old daughter and a woman health worker, going in an ambulance died at Brahmanigaon in Kandhamal district in November 2010, attack on a police party in Gosma forests in February 2008 and loot of Nayagarh armoury in February 2008, the sources added.

Also Justice A S Naidu Commission is planning to soon quiz Sabyasachi, who is currently on police remand, through video conferencing.

The commission is inquiring into Saraswati’s killing and the ethno-communal riots in its aftermath in Kandhamal.

The Maoist leader is in police custody after SDJM court, Brahmapur granted 10-day remand on July 19.