Villagers protest arrest of tribal leader
The Rayagada police on Monday arrested Hadibandhu Kadraka of Rajuluguda village under Muniguda police station limits on charges of being part of a Maoist group, which was about to plant landmines under a culvert.
Acting on a tipoff, Rayagada SP K Siva Subramanyam said, a police team kept vigil on the area where Maoists were planning to plant landmines under a culvert near Sarabali village under Muniguda police station limits on Sunday night.
The SP said that a group of four Maoists was found approaching the culvert at 5am. Seeing the police, they fled the spot, but the former managed to nab Kadraka and reportedly seized a tiffin bomb, three electronic detonators, three 7.62 mm live cartridges, a 25-metre- long wire and two Maoist banners from his possession, the SP added.
Meanwhile, several villagers of Rajuluguda, under the banner of lok Sangram Manch, protested in front of the local police station demanding their leader Kadraka’s release.
Kadraka’s wife Tulasi lodged a complaint with the Muniguda police alleging that the police had abducted her husband.
Communist Party of India (Marxist-leninist)’s national spokesman Bhala Chandra Sarangi said Kadraka, a former president of lok Sangram Manch, had been fighting for the cause of the poor tribals by organising a land rights movement in the district.
Sarangi said Maoists had circulated posters against Kadraka branding him as an agent of the police, but now his arrest raised eyebrows on the police action.
Meanwhile, several tribal leaders warned that they would take to the streets if the police did not release Kadraka at the earliest.