In a successful bid, the Kuarmunda police arrested 13 members of the People’s liberation Front of India (PlFI), the outlawed extremists group of Jharkhand, in the last two days. Among them is an ex-Army man.
According to Sundargarh SP Pinak Mishra, the police conducted multiple raids in various places and arrested the six extremists on a tip-off on Saturday. Among them is a former Assistant Commandant of the Border Security Force (BSF). He was identified as Jadumani Patra and a native of Bonai Police Station region. He used to give inputs about arms to the outfit.
On Sunday seven rebels of the outlawed outfit including Zonal Committee Member Arjun Rana and Koida-Barbil area commander Karan Sai were arrested. They were actively involved in a number of crimes in Keonjhar, Sundergarh and neighbouring Jharkhand.
After their arrest, the Sundargarh SP, while speaking to mediapersons on Sunday, said that they were tipped off about the presence of 10 to 15 PlFI operatives in Khukundubahal forest of Kuanrmunda block under Birmitrapur police limits. A police team raided the area on Saturday leading to the arrest of four PlFI operatives including zonal committee member Arjun Rana alias Kapil Pathak (28), area commander for Koira and Barbil Karan Soy alias Surya alias Paulus Munda (22), Jageswar Singh (30) and Sundar Oriya alias Sulli (23), while the rest managed to flee.
The accused were arrested after raid at a camp at Kukudabahal forest under Biramitrapur police limits late on September 29 night. The interrogation of the arrested PlFI operatives led to the arrest of Mano Kujur (39) with a DBBl rifle from the Bimitrapur police limits while Manuel Bhengra (39) was arrested from Simdega district in Jharkhand and Rajmohan Kishan (23) from the Birmitrapur police station area on Sunday. Kujur is an employee of Rourkela Steel Plant. A DBBl rifle and 12 live bullets were seized from his house at Dumerjore in Birmitrapur. Kujur is accused of providing logistic support to the outfit, added the SP.
The names of PlFI members who are arrested on Monday are Jadumani Patra, Sandip Ekka, Suraj Sahoo, Kutru Khadia, Vishal Thakur and Ribi Xalxo.
The police also seized one .9mm carbine machine gun, three 12 bore DBBl (Double Barrel Breach loading) rifles, two .9mm pistols and about 50 live bullets. And finally so far 13 were arrested. This is the biggest success in the history of Kuarmund police.
It may be noted here that in an encounter, the Jharkhand police in Kullatoppa forest, about 25 km from Sundargarh border, had gunned down PlFI operatives Radha Naik, Manish Surin and lalu lakra on September 24. PlFI chief Dinesh Gope, present at the encounter site, had reportedly received gunshot injuries. The Jharkhand police had also seized a modified AK-47, lMG and carbine machine gun, but the PlFI chief could not be captured.