ROURKELA: Two operatives of the Jharkhand-based Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC), a splinter Maoist group largely engaged in violent extortion activities, were nabbed from Rourkela railway station in Sundargarh district on Thursday.
The duo is Awadhesh Yadav (26) from Lesliganj in Palamu district and Upendra Yadav (24) from Manika in Latehar of Jharkhand. The Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel apprehended the extremists and handed them over to Rourkela police. A team of Jharkhand police is on way to Rourkela to take the custody of the TPC operatives.
Reliable sources informed that the duo was on way to Jharsuguda in a train from Dhanbad in Jharkhand. The RPF unit at Rourkela was tipped off about their movement by Dhanbad police, leading to their detention at around 9 am.
Rourkela SP Nitesh Wadhwani said the two extremists were detained for safety reason and a team of Jharkhand police is scheduled to arrive shortly to take their custody. The TPC has no recorded history of its presence in Sundargarh side of Odisha border. Sources said the duo was reportedly involved in the firing incident at Tori railway siding under Chandwa police limits in Jharkhand’s Latehar district on October 5.
Formed in 2002, the TPC is a breakaway faction of the erstwhile Maoist Communist Centre of India. Primarily engaged in violent extortion activities, it is a proscribed outfit of Jharkhand and largely operates in Latehar, Palamu and Chatra districts. The TPC considers the banned CPI (Maoist) and another splinter rebel groups including the People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI) as its sworn enemies.
