District Collector kidnapped by Maoists?

Bhubaneshwar, Feb 16: A senior official of Orissa's Maoist-hit Malkangiri district today went missing and was suspected to have been abducted by Naxalites when he was going to attend a camp for local development in a remote area about 700km from here, officials said here.

Malkangiri District Collector R Veenil Krishna went missing when he was going from one development camp in Barapada under Chitrakonda police station area of the district to another this afternoon and all communication links with him have remained snapped since then, Additional Director General of Police and chief of anti-Maoist operations Sanjiv Marik said.

Home Secretary U N Behera said "we have information that Krishna might have been abducted by Maoists. But we are trying to ascertain that".

Malkangiri Additional SP A Das said communication links with the Collector have remained cut off since the afternoon.

Additional reinforcements of policemen have been sent to the area to bolster efforts to trace the Collector, Marik said adding a red alert was sounded in the area bordering Andhra Pradesh.

PTI