Anti-Posco leader Abhay Sahoo was arrested on Saturday in connection with several cases, including a bomb blast incident in the proposed Posco steel project site near Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district.
Sahoo, who was to leave for Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu to attend a meeting there, was arrested from the Bhubaneswar airport by a police team from Jagatsinghpur shortly before departure of his flight," Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Paradip, Bhabani Shankar Mishra said.
The police team then took Sahoo, the chief of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) which has been spearheading a prolonged agitation against the South Korean company's mega project, to Kujang near Paradip.
Sahoo, who is also a CPI leader, was produced at the judicial magistrate court at Kujang in the afternoon and sent to Samagola Jail at Kujang for two weeks after his bail plea was rejected. Before being sent to the jail, his health was checked up and all medical parameters were found to be normal.
According to police sources, he is booked under Sections 147, 148, 307, 379, 506 and 120B of IPC.
There are a total of 54 cases of different nature against Sahu, the police said, adding the PPSS leader was on bail in 50 cases and the presednt arrest was made in connection with four fresh cases involving the bomb explosion on March 2 this year killing three persons, obstruction in Government work and other offences.
Sahoo, however, claimed that he is implicated in false cases. He said he was to leave for Coimbatore on Friday to attend a conference but had deferred his visit as his son-in-law fell ill and was hospitalised. He would continue to oppose the Posco project, he said. Sahoo had also been arrested more than two years ago in connection with various offences before being released after obtaining a bail from court in December 2011.