Odisha's most wanted Maoist Sabyasachi Panda caught by police

BHUBANESHWAR: Odisha's most wanted Maoist was arrested late on Thursday night from a house in a bylane of Berhampur town, with a revolver, four bullets, half a kilo of gold, a laptop, 10 mobile phones, five pen drives and Rs 2 lakh in cash.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik announced the news in the assembly as a "big achievement of the Odisha police". Sabyasachi Panda alias Sunil, accused in the killing of 25 security personnel and 34 civilians, including Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Swami Laxmanand Saraswati — a murder that is believed to have triggered the 2008 Kandhmal riots — has been on the run since 2000.

The state police has been on his heels for some time, killing one of his men and reportedly even managing to injure Panda on February 15. In a series of raids on his camps and arms dumps it managed to capture much of his outfit's ammunition.

"We had sort of lost track of him in the last four months, but by then we knew he had little option," said a senior police of ficial.

Disowned by the CPI(Maoist), cadre-less and marginalised to a forest along the Ganjam-Kandhamal border in south Odisha, Panda's arrest will not ease the insurgency challenge faced by the state.

But Panda had come to become the face of Maoism in the state over the last two decades and his capture will be a huge morale boost for the state police.

Several seeming overtures had been reported in the recent past, including reports in the run-up to elections that 46-year-old Panda, son of a three time CPI(M) MLA and grandson of a freedom fighter, could join the Aam Aadmi Party, which the latter denied.

"Surrendering is akin to suicide for a revolutionary," said his wife, Subhashree, who goes by the name Mili Panda, welcoming the news. "I want him to be first produced in court and given the medical help he needs, if he is injured," said Mili, who fought the recent assembly elections unsuccessfully on an Ama Odisha ticket. Mili herself was arrested in 2010 and 2012 before being acquitted by courts.

Panda followed in his father's footsteps, joining the student arm of the CPM while still studying mathematics at a college in Puri. He rose to a leadership position under the breakaway group of the party that aligned itself with the CPI (Marxist– Leninist).

"He was the guiding spirit behind formation of Chasi Mulia Samiti and Kui Lawenga Sangha in 1995 in Rayagada and Gajapati districts," said Patnaik.

Panda moved from coastal to southwest Odisha during his association with the above movement that sought to reclaim land for tribals, which led to his arrest.

After being released he went underground in 2000. It was Panda who had claimed responsibility for the killing of Laxmanand.

It was Panda who had claimed responsibility for killing of Laxmanand on behalf of the CPI(M) party of which he was the state spokesperson. The riots were a huge embarrassment for Patnaik’s government and on Odisha’s claim on secularism.

Panda’s relationship with the central committee of the Maoist party though began to sour the year after. After the death of Kishen ji who had backed him, he and his band of followers were alienated from the party and forced to fend for themselves in the forests of Rayagada, Gajapati, Ganjam, Kandhamal and Nayagarh. He even distanced himself from the killing of Laxmanand saying he was never in favour of the killing of the VHP leader.

In 2012 he made national headlines again after abducting two Italian tourists. Sampad Mahapatra, a senior journalist who was handed over one of the two Italians, says, “He had then declared a unilateral ceasefire against the police. Heis no longer a real part of the Maoist operations in Odisha and was alone. It would have been a greater achievement had the state arrested active Maoist leaders like Ramakrishna (RK), Daya or Modem Balakrishna or present state secretary of CPI(M), Nikhil.”