JOIN USOdisha Police have arrested Sangram Mohanty, a civil contractor, for his alleged links with Odisha Maoists Party (OMP), an outfit recently floated by most wanted Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda.
Sangram, son of activist Dandapani Mohanty, had negotiated between the state government and the Maoists during the kidnapping and subsequent release of two Italian tourists in Kandhamal district earlier this year. He also acted as a mediator during the abduction of Malkangiri Collector R Vineel Krishna.
Police sources said Sangram was nabbed near Mohana in Gajapati district while he was trying to handover arms, ammunition and Maoist literature to alleged OMP courier Kailash Mandal. Mandal has also been taken into custody.
A senior officer from Gajapati district said the police arrested Sangram following a tip off and recovered two American-made revolvers, nearly hundred rounds of ammunitions for SLR and AK-47 rifles and 500 grams of explosive material besides cash and Maoist literature.
Dandapani Mohanty, who heads Jana Adhikar Manch, however, has strongly denied the charge that his son had links with the Maoists. He said Sangram was “kidnapped” by the police while he was on his way to a garage to repair a vehicle in Berhampur in Ganjam district. He has also filed an FIR on the matter at a police station in Berhampur. Ganjam is the neighbouring district of Gajapati. “The kidnap is part of a greater conspiracy to eliminate my entire family,” Mohanty alleged.
A few days ago, Mohanty had launched a scathing attack against the state police on the recent Moist-police encounter in Gajapati district in which five OMP cadres were killed.
Describing it as a fake encounter, the activists had claimed that the five killed were not
Maoists but ordinary villagers. He was also a part of the group of activists who had recently staged a dharna near the state assembly here demanding immediate halt to the ongoing police operations against the OMP chief Panda.