Two women Maoist cadre lay down arms

Police said many local ultras are surrendering as they are being denied promotions and their senior leaders are showing favouritism towards the Andhra cadres. 
Debe and Gita Podiami pose with police after their surrender on Sunday. (Photo | Express)
Debe and Gita Podiami pose with police after their surrender on Sunday. (Photo | Express)

BHUBANESWAR/JEYPORE: Two women Maoists, including one from Chhattisgarh, laid down their arms on Sunday.

Gita Podiami of Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district and Debe Podiami of Malkangiri’s Kalimela area (carrying cash rewards of Rs 4 lakh and Rs 1 lakh each, respectively) surrendered before DGP Abhay at Sunabeda in Koraput in presence of Director, Intelligence Lalit Das. 

Debe had joined the banned outfit’s Kalimela area committee in 2005 as a member and received formal training in 2007. She worked with Kalimela area committee till December 2008 and then was part of Machhkund local organisation squad for the next year. Debe was promoted to the rank of area committee member in 2020 and was provided with an Insas rifle. She continued to work with the Gumma area committee until surrendering before the police. Debe was involved in seven major attacks on the security forces in Odisha. 

In 2018, Gita was inducted into CPI (Maoist) in Dandakaranya special zonal committee. She was a party member in Jana Natya Mandali for six months and in December 2018 she was transferred to the AOB supply team under Andhra Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee (AOBSZC). After six months, Gita was transferred to Andhra-Odisha Border (AOB) military platoon. She worked in Boipariguda and Machhkund areas of Koraput district, Swabhiman Anchal, Tulsi area in Malkangiri and Pedabayalu in Andhra Pradesh. She was involved in at least four exchanges of fire with the security forces in Malkangiri between 2018 and 2021.

Police said many local ultras are surrendering as they are being denied promotions and their senior leaders are showing favouritism towards the Andhra cadres.DGP Abhay who appealed to the Maoists to join the mainstream also presented 22 police personnel with merit certificates for their efforts in dealing with Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in the tribal areas and to five others for their achievement in NDPS case detection in the district. 

Earlier, he inaugurated a police station at the BSF camp and then went to Kalimela where he inaugurated the newly-constructed police station building. Later, he reached office of Malkangiri Superintendent of Police Prahalad Sahai Meena and held a meeting with BSF and police officials.

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