Rayagada: Loka Shakti Abhiyan president and environmental activist Prafulla Samantara was picked up today afternoon by four unidentified men in Rayagada. He has gone incommunicado since then.

According to sources, Samantara had to attend a press meeting at around 4.00 pm, which was to be held at Hotel Kailash in the town against Vedanta Group. However, he was staying in room No-103 of another hospitality facility named Hotel Swagat. The unknown persons took him in a vehicle elsewhere, the source added.

After being picked up, activist Samantara’s two mobile phones did not respond when he was repeatedly contacted by one of his acquaintances and showed ‘switched off’. Earlier in the day, some local workers of the Congress party had met him and the activist asked them to give him a lift on their motorcycle to the conference site at around 4.00 pm. When the party workers reached again, he was not there.

When contacted, Hotel Swagat’s owner Srinivas said that he would lodge an FIR with the police.

Besides, local police have feigned ignorance of the incident and refuted their involvement in it.