During anti-Maoist operations in a jungle near Salimagochha village under the Merikote Reserve Forest in Ganjam district, the joint team of the Ganjam police and the Special Operation Group (SOG) on Saturday night arrested two Maoists and seized a huge cache of explosives after destroying a Maoist camp in the jungle, said Southern Range DIG Amitabh Thakur at a Press meet here on Sunday.
The nabbed Maoists were identified as Bhupati Mahanta (22) alias Papu of Tangarpada village and Govinda Moharana (24) of Tambahada under the Harichandanpur police limits in Keonjhar district.
Bhupati confessed before the police that he was inducted into the Odisha Maovadi Party (OMP) by Gopi Mishra to act as personal courier of OMP chief Sabyasachi Panda while Govinda was inducted into the party a few days ago by Bhupati. Thakur said there was exchange of fire between the police and the suspected Maoists for about 45 minutes on Saturday morning after detection of the Maoist camp in the jungle.
Though the security personnel nabbed the two ultras from the spot, others managed to flee from there. The police team recovered a 7.62 SlR, a magazine, a 7.26-mm ammunition ball, an SBMl gun, a camera, traditional sharp weapons, two bundles of electric wire, Maoists literature and medicines and other household articles from the camp, said Ganjam SP Asish Singh.