A dreaded Maoist surrendered before the Angul police on Wednesday. “Manoj alias Madhav Dehury of the Jakob area in the district surrendered this morning. Unable to tolerate the inhuman activities of the Red rebels, he joined the mainstream,” Angul SP Rajesh Pandit said.

He said Dehury was working in the SDS division of the Maoists’ Nayagarh-Boudh-Angul division. Currently, the division has 12 ultras, who assist the main group in ambush and exchange of fire with the security forces.

“During questioning, he (Dehury) informed us that the Maoist leaders of neighbouring Jharkhand are not treating the local leaders well. Many a time, they assert their supremacy and engage the ultras in theft and loot. The local leaders also work for them without food. On several occasions, they direct the ultras to extort money from the contractors,” Pandit said.

“Dehury also told us that his Jharkhand leaders were torturing the women cadres of the group,” he said.

About Dehury’s activities in the group, Pandit said, “He trained in tactics and field craft, was working under the leadership of Bijoy alias Kunu Dehury. He admitted that he had helped Maoists in logistics and arrangement of group meetings. He also informed that he played a major role in the attack on the forest beat house.”

The police are crosschecking the antecedents of Dehury from their counterparts in other districts.

On his part, Dehury accused the Maoists of ‘monstrous’ activities and said he failed to deliver on their ideologies.

“Ever since I joined the group a year back, I could not tolerate exchange of fire between the Maoists and the police. Many times, they didn’t even provide me food. Sometimes, they forced me to work like a labourer. I worked hard as I respected their ideologies. But gradually, they started deviating from it and set up laws to suit themselves. Unable to bear these things, I fled from the area and decided to surrender,” Dehury said.