NIA quizzes Maoist leader in Odisha prison

The National Investigating Agency (NIA) interrogated a hardcore arrested Maoist currently lodged in a prison in Odisha’s Naxal-infested Koraput district in connection with the attack at Darava Ghat in Chhattisgarh last year in which several senior Congress leaders of the neighbouring state were killed.

“The NIA team came and interrogated Chandu alias Anil Kumar at the Central prison here,” the Koraput district Superintendent of Police (SP) Avinash Kumar told Deccan Herald on Sunday.

Chandu, arrested by the Koraput police early this month during a combing operation, was the second-in-command of the CPI(Maoist) Andhra-Odisha Special Zonal Committee. He was also chief of the Maoists’ intelligence wing for three states of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

Sources in Koraput district police said, during the marathon grilling by the NIA sleuths which continued for several hours, Chandu provided some vital information on the planning and execution of the Chhattisgarh attack.

Earlier, the NIA team had questioned some arrested Maoists cadres in neighbouring Malakngiri district in connection with the incident.