Three suspected Maoists arrested;one foreigner detained

Bubaneswar, Aug 13 (UNI) The Jajpur police today arrested three suspected Maoists and detained one foreigner during a joint operation by the Barchana and Balichandrapur police.

Police also detained the driver of the car in which the foreigner was traveling along with woman Maoist, identified as Pratima Das alias Prachi(32) of Choudwar in Cuttack district.

The vehicle has also been seized.

Police suspected that the woman Maoist, involved in several cases in Jagatsinghpur district, was working as state cadre worker of the woman wing.

The two other suspected Maoists, who were also arrested, were Brajamohan Hembrum (38) and Santi Hansda(35) of Gadhapur under Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex area in Jajpur district.

Police detained David Hugs (60) of the United States of America and driver Devi Prasad Mishra. While Prachi, David and the driver were picked up by police near Kaudikhola chhak, Santi and Brajamohan were arrested from their residence at Gadhapur today.

Police claimed that Pratima was a hardcore Maoist of state level and was monitoring the woman extremist wing in entire Orissa for the past couple of years.

However, no case against her fwas ound during the interrogation and she was handed over to Jagatsinghpur district police for further interrogation, Jajpur Superintendent of Police D S Kuttey said.

On the other hand both Santi and Brajamohan were the supporters of CPI ML(Jansakti) wing. They were sent to a local court in Jajpur, which remanded them to judicial custody.

Police had, meanwhile, beefed up the security measures following the arrest of the three Maoists and launched intensive combing operation in the Kalinga Nagar areas to ascertain whether some more Maoists were hiding there.

The foreigner, who was detained by police, during the interrogation said he had come to the area to study the displacement issue of the tribals and had no knowledge about the antecedent of Pratima Das.

UNI DP SJC MIR BST2153