ROURKELA: A Maoistand his wife, both armed cadres operating along Odisha-Jharkhand border and each of them carrying rewards of `one lakh, surrendered before the officials of Rourkela Police and 19th Battalion of CRPF at the Rourkela police district headquarters on Saturday.
Rourkela SP Anirudh Singh, accompanied by CRPF Commandant Himanshu Kumar, informed that Sanika Topno alias Sangel Munda alias Sushil (25) of K Balang in Sundargarh district and his wife Sunita Hansdah alias Sushree alias Mariam (20) of Chhotanagra of West Singhbhum district in Jharkhand surrendered before the security forces after secretly quitting the banned CPI(Maoist) outfit in August.
The SP said the couple had joined the outfit in 2012 end after being influenced by senior Maoist leader Anmol Hembram and were given arms training. They had worked with the Maoist groups of Anmol, Chandan and Sandeep in the forests of Saranda and Porahat in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand and were also active in Bonai sub-division in Sundargarh.
The SP claimed they were involved in multiple exchanges of fire with Rourkela police, including firing incidents at Gahami forest under Chandiposh police limits on November 11, 2015, Kusumi reserve forest under Gurundia police limits on June 28 and Sanbalijore forest under K Balang police limits on July 9.
They decided to quit the outfit after getting frustrated by the Maoists’ mindless killing of innocent people, exploitation of tribal women and young girls in the outfit by senior cadres, disruptive activities and constant waging of war against the State to create instability in the civil administration.