The timing and circumstances under which the arrest of top Maoist Sabyasachi Panda was carried out by the Brahmapur Police on the midnight of Thursday has raised several questions in many quarters, including the State and Central police circles.
According to a source, the information that Panda was holed up in a house in Brahmapur was known to a select few police officers days before the change of guard at the State police headquarters. However, the information was kept under wraps and efforts were made to ensure the news does not reach some senior police officials.
The house in Mangalbara-mpet in Brahmapur’s Bada Bazar area was kept under surveillance for a few days, another source said, until the final nod came from the top.This source said the police team monitoring Panda’s movements and mobile phone calls had reasons to suspect that he had moved out of his jungle camp at least six weeks ago. They then started an operation to locate him at different places based on earlier information on his favourite haunts.
According to sources it was a relatively senior IPS officer who finally managed to zero in on Panda’s Brahmapur hideout. However, it is unclear when he got to know about it and who did he pass the information to.There are also reports that a person, who acted as Panda’s advisor and was in constant touch with him, helped the police trace him out. This person, sources said, had advised Panda against giving up his jungle life when the Gandhians appealed to the Maoist leader to join the mainstream last year.
However, it is suspected, it was this man who finally tipped off the police about Panda’s whereabouts to escape harassment in future for his links with the ultras. It is unclear, however, if Panda had an inkling of the shape of things awaiting him.
Sources also say that the political bosses were opposed to the idea of securing arrest or surrender of Panda and Koraput rebel leader Nachika linga before the general elections because a section of the ruling BJD felt “that would be politically inconvenient”.
That explains why linga’s ‘declared move’ to join the mainstream before the elections was ‘sabotaged’, sources in the BJD admitted.They were also not keen on arresting Panda or facilitating his return to the mainstream until recently because he was unwilling to play ball and help the police implicate certain individuals who were in the State Government’s ‘bad books.’But the answer to why the police arrested Panda now and not earlier, when it was eminently possible, is a mystery as of now.