BALANGIR: A hardcore woman Maoist cadre from Chhattisgarh, Nirmala was arrested by Balangir police on Saturday. Another Maoist militia member who was arrested with her allegedly committed suicide on Friday night.
Sources said while Nirmala was nabbed from Titilagarh railway station on July 8, she was detained for questioning till Saturday when a formal arrest was made.
Nirmala was held along with a Maoist militia Goutam Bag who was accompanying her from Visakhapatnam in the train. She had sustained injury in her neck and had gone to Visakhapatnam for treatment. Goutam was a resident of Jurabandh village under Kantabanaji police limits.
While Nirmala was detained for questioning, Goutam was freed from police custody on Friday morning after interrogation. However, he returned to the Kantabanji police station on Friday evening fearing danger to his life from the Maoist leaders. The cops kept him in a police barrack in the night where he allegedly tried to commit suicide by hanging using his trousers. Receiving information, police rushed him to Kantabanji CHC in an unconscious state. Doctors later referred him to Titilagarh Sub-divisional Hospital on Saturday morning after his condition deteriorated and he succumbed while being shifted to the hospital. During investigation, police raided Goutam’s house in Jurabandh and seized a nine mm pistol and four live bullets.
Balangir SP, Deepak Kumar informed that Nirmala is a Chhattisgarh cadre of CPI(Maoist) outfit and is involved in several murder cases and setting ablaze a country liquor manufacturing unit.