Arrested TC leader confessed taking Maoist help: Police

Bhubaneswar, Jan 12 (PTI) Arrested Trinamool Congressactivist Karmu Mahto has confessed to Orissa police that hewas a block-level leader of the party and took Maoist help tocounter violence by CPI(M) cadres at Jhargram in West Bengal.

Bhubaneswar Commissioner of Police B K Sharma told PTItoday that Mahto and had made the confession duringinterrogation yesterday.

Mahto was detained by Orissa police and arrested by WestBengal police on Monday from SCB Medical College and Hospitalin Cuttack along with two others - Deben Marandi and ManikSoren who had been admitted for treatment of injuriesallegedly sustained during blasts.

"Mahto, when interrogated in Bengali opened up andconfessed that he used to take help of Maoists to face theCPI-M activists ... Marandi and Soren confessed that they areactive Maoists," Sharma, who himself interrogated Mahto andthe other two men yesterday, said.

Sharma said Mahto also confessed that he organisedmeetings for Maoists and provided them with ''other support''.

He had also confessed that he had unsuccessfully tried to getSoren treated at private hsopitals in Cuttack.

"Marandi also admitted that he had made four bombs onDecember 5 and was finishing the fifth one when it explodedand killed a person, besides injuring seven others," he said.

Marandi and Soren were among the two injured. Marandi,undergoing treatment for grievous injuries, was operated upontoday.

To a question, he said the trio were detained onSaturday and the police had received a phone call from ananonymous caller the next day threatening to blow up thepolice outpost at the SCB Medical College Hospital.

"Orissa and West Bengal police immediately tookprecautions at the hospital... This was the first such caseat the premier hospital," Sharma said.

Asked whether Maoists from West Bengal were slipping intoOrissa for treatment, Sharma said the Commissionerate ofPolice had no mechanism to determine it.

Two years ago police had nabbed Anna Reddy, a Maoistleader when he had visited a private hospital here.