In a major success in the fight against Leftwing extremism, the Odisha police arrested a top Maoist leader Dubashi Sankar from the Boipariguda police station area in Koraput district on Monday.
"Dubashi Sankar, who was carrying a cash reward of Rs 20 lakh on his head, was arrested yesterday during a joint operation by the Special Operation Group (SOG) and District Voluntary Force (DVF) of the Odisha Police and the Border Security Force (BSF), DGP Abhay said on Tuesday.
He was nabbed from under the Baipariguda police station when he was conspiring to carry out violent activities with the help of other members, the DGP said.
"An Insas rifle, 10 rounds of ammunition and other articles were recovered from the possession of Shankar. the Koraput police forwarded him to court today," he added.
He said Shankar is the highest-ranking Maoist to be arrested or neutralised in the past 20 years by the Odisha Police. He was a member of the Andhra-Odisha Special Zonal Committee and involved in a series of violent attacks on security forces and killing of civilians in Koraput, Malkangiri in Odisha and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
"We suspect his involvement in the 2009 Maoist ambush in Damanjodi in which nine CISF jawans were martyred. He was also involved in Govindpalli landmine blast in 2010 in which 11 personnel of Odisha police were killed. Besides, he was part of Janiguda ambush under Chitrakonda in which four BSF personnel were killed," Abhay said.
"We will soon take him on remand for further questioning about the Maoist organisation and will try to p," he added.
The DGP further said that some other Maoists who were with Shankar and had fled after his arrest exchanged fire with the Odisha police on Tuesday afternoon. While no casualties were reported from either side, some arms and ammunition were recovered after the gun battle.
In another development, a member of Guma Area Committee surrendered before the DIG SP of Koraput. "He expressed his willingness to join the mainstream by shunning violence," the DGP said.
