SAMBALPUR: After confusion over her identity, the Sambalpur police on Saturday arrested wanted woman Maoist, Sumitra Kuanr alias Sebati. She and three others were rounded up from Badibahal under Kisinda police limits in Sambalpur district on Thursday night and police had detained her for a day to ascertain her identity.
The three others were released in the absence of evidence against them.
Sumitra, was the assistant area commander of the Sambalpur-Deogarh-Sundargarh division of CPI(Maoist) outfit and carried a reward of `4 lakh on her head. She joined the banned outfit at the age of 15 and was involved in a number of Maoist activities in the district. There are five criminal cases pending against her.
Sambalpur SP, Prateek Mohanty, said Sumitra had been lured into the outfit by a Maoist cadre Dhanu Dehuri who is currently lodged in Sambalpur circle jail. She joined the outfit in the 2007 and had undergone arms training in Maoist camps at Saranda forest bordering Sundargarh and Jharkhand before actively participating in Maoist activities in Sambalpur district till 2009.
When police intensified their action against the ultras in Sambalpur, Sumitra shifted to Saranda forest where she married a Maoist cadre, Ranbir who was arrested when Sumitra was pregnant in 2011.
Subsequently, Sumitra gave birth to a child in 2012 and remained active in the outfit. She had also attended a meeting of central committee of the Maoist organisation in Jharkhand last year.
Sumitra had come to her village Badbahal to drop her child with her parents with a group of persons on Thursday night, when police on a tip off, arrested the group.
Police said Sumitra was involved in the encounter at Badpata forest near Badbahal in 2008 in which two ultras were gunned down.
She was also involved in another encounter in June, 2009 at Kantasahi forest in which, a sub-inspector Narsingh Mahakud was killed.
Alert in Koraput blocks
Koraput: High alert has been sounded in Narayanpatna and Bandhugam areas of the district with intelligence inputs on possible entry of Maoist leaders from Andhra Pradesh into Koraput after Sabyasachi Panda’s arrest. Sources said police have received inputs about Maoist leaders holding an emergency meeting in Koraput on the impact of Panda’s arrest on the Maoist movement in Southern Odisha districts of Rayagada, Gajapati, Phulbani and Ganjam. Police have intensified combing operation in all the sensitive pockets of the two blocks. Inspector General (IG) of Police, south-west range of Odisha, Yashwant Jethwa, said arrest of Panda would not have much impact in Koraput as his group, Odisha Maobadi Party, had limited its activities to Ganjam, Phulbani and Gajapati.