In a major breakthrough, the Odisha police on Friday arrested the most wanted and top Naxal leader Sabyasachi Panda from a house where he had taken refuge. There was no encounter with the home-grown Naxal leader during the raids in the Bada Bazar area of Berhampur from where he was nabbed, said DIG (southern range) Amitabh Thakur.
One revolver, four rounds of ammunition, around half kg of gold ornaments, a laptop, four pen-drives, two hard disks, ten mobile handsets and several other items were seized from him during the raids.
After being arrested, he was produced before the SDJM (sub divisional judicial magistrate) court and was sent for 14 days of police remand.
A police team led by the Berhampur superintendent of police Anirudha Singh raided the house late last night. Panda was first trying to escape from the police raid. When the police team forced its entry into the house by breaking the door, he jumped to the nearby house and tried to hide himself, police said.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik confirmed the news of Panda’s arrest in the state assembly, claiming it a ‘big achievement’ of the state police.
Patnaik said, Panda was involved in numerous sensational cases like the Nayagarh and R Udayagiri armoury loot, killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, abduction of two Italian nationals and blowing up of ambulance in Kandhamal besides overall involvement in killing of 25 security personnel and 34 civilians.
The chief minister said the police personnel would be rewarded for this ‘spectacular achievement’. He also appealed to the outlawed ultras to shed violence and join the mainstream.
Panda, the son of former CPI (M) MLA, Ramesh Panda, had his roots at Ranapur in Nayagarh district.
Police said Panda started his Naxal activities in 1995 with the formation of Chasi Mulia Samiti and Kui Labanga Sangha. Later, he joined the CPI (Maoist) cadre. He was then the organising secretary of the Bansadhara division of the organisation. Panda, however, formed his own party- Odisha Maobadi Party after being expelled from CPI (Maoist). The Odisha government and Andhra Pradesh government had declared a reward of Rs 2 lakh each for his head. “His arrest is a big success for the police and we hope the Naxal activities in the area would dwindle with his arrest,” said a senior police officer.
Former director general of police Gopal Nanda described Panda’s arrest a big success. He, however, said, the arrest would not weaken the Naxal insurgency in a major way since Panda was no longer a part of the parent outfit and his strength had gone down in the past few years.
