Mili meets DGP; speculation over Sabyasachi surrender

Top Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda’s wife Mili Panda meeting Odisha DGP Prakash Mishra on Wednesday led to speculations that the beleaguered Red leader is now left with no choice but to surrender before the police with a bargain. 

As his key associates are being eliminated one after another, talks about Panda’s surrender gained momentum when his wife Subhashree Dash alias Mili met the DGP at the police headquarters here.

After failing to meet the DGP at his camp office in Bhubaneswar last month, Mili was allowed to meet him at the police headquarters with sources saying she had a one-to one discussion with the DGP for over an hour.

While Mili refused to divulge what transpired between them, the DGP speaking to waiting mediapersons parried all questions except with a one-liner reply that the Maoist leader’s wife had come to meet him over the pending police cases registered against her.

“She had come to discuss about the cases registered against her,” the DGP said without taking any further questions. The police have registered some fresh cases against Mili recently over her alleged involvement in supply of explosives to Maoists.

However, speculations are rife that Mili met the DGP to find a way out so her husband surrenders with dignity. Sabyasachi Panda is now left alone in jungles as most of his key associates have been killed in police encounters or apprehended recently.

Sources said Panda’s life is in danger now as he is surrounded by the police on one side while his onetime fellow Maoists from Andhra Pradesh are baying for his blood from the other side.

It is also learnt that Mili is trying her best to strike a deal so that all cases against her husband are withdrawn so that it would usher in a safe passage for him to surrender in order to return to the mainstream. Panda is reported to have over 50 cases pending against him, including the attack on the Nayagarh armoury and murder of Hindu leader Swami laxmanananda Saraswati.