The SDJM Court, Nayagarh on Thursday allowed the Crime Branch (CB) police to take Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda on remand.
The CB had sought remand of Panda in connection with the Maoists’ attack on district armoury of Nayagarh in February 2008 and the murder of Swami laxmanananda Saraswati in August 2008. The Crime Branch has also moved a Phulbani court in the matter.
CB sources said Panda is the prime accused in at least nine sensitive cases being probed by it. The cases in question include the landmine explosion in which five people, including a pregnant woman and her three-year-old daughter and a woman health worker, going in an ambulance died at Brahmanigaon in Kandhamal district in November 2010, the attack on a police party in the Gosma forests in February 2008 and the loot of the Nayagarh armoury in February 2008, the sources added.
Besides, the Justice AS Naidu Commission is planning to soon quiz Panda, who is currently on police remand, through videoconferencing. The commission is inquiring into Saraswati’s killing and the ethno-communal riots in its aftermath in the Kandhamal district. Panda is in police custody after the Brahmapur SDJM court granted a 10-day remand of the Maoist leader on July 19.