Activists of the Jan Manch Odisha, the outfit led by top Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda’s wife Mili Panda, on Wednesday demanded that cases against Mili be withdrawn.
The agitators, who staged a demonstration in front of the offices of the Nayagarh district Collector and Superintendent of Police, denied reports of Mili’s nexus with the recently-nabbed hardcore Maoists.
"The protests will be intensified if the cases against Mili are not withdrawn," said agitators after submitting a memorandum to the Collector and the SP as regards their demand. Earlier on April 4, huge quantities of arms and ammunition, Maoist literature and cash of `3.99 lakh were seized from two Maoists K Anita alias Kalari Majhi of Sabyasachi Panda's Odisha Maovadi Party (OMP) women wing and Bikram Mallick, an over-ground worker of the OMP.
Based on the interrogation of the arrested Maoists that Mili was providing these items to her husband through OMP cadres from the Nayagarh area, the police registered a case against her. Besides IPC, Mili has been charged under various Sections of the Unlawful Activities (prevention) Act, Arms Act, Explosives Act and Harmful Publication Act, according to the police.
Meanwhile, rebutting allegations of any Maoist link Mili said, "As the Government feels I am a threat to the BJD's politics in Nayagarh, they used the police to malign me," she said.
Mili has expressed her interest in contesting from the Ranpur Assembly constituency in Nayagarh district under the Jan Manch Odisha banner in the coming elections. The constituency was represented in the Assembly by her father-in-law late Ramesh Chandra Panda twice.