Ex-army man arrested for training Naxals in Odisha

Odisha Police arrests an ex-army personnel along with five others for providing arms training and logistic support to CPI-Maoist breakaway faction People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI) from Sundergarh district.

The arrests came a day after Odisha Police arrested eight PLFI cadres including two commander rank members of the banned outfit.

Sundergarh superintendent of police (SP) Pinak Mishra, “Jadumani Patra one of the arrested on Monday raids is a former army jawan.”

The SP informed the media that Patra is a resident of Badbil, is an ex-army personnel, and he was providing shelter, logistics support and arms training Arjun Rana, a zonal commander, and his troop. Rana was arrested on Sunday.

The other arrested have been identified as Sandip Ekka, 22; Butru Khadia, 20; Suraj Sahu, 19; Kalu Thakur, 19, and Riba Xalxo, 30. All the arrested belong to Biramitrapur of Sundergarh district.

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Mishra added, "Monday arrests were made after Arjun and Kiran Soye PLFI cadres arrested yesterday spilled details of other members during questioning.”

“A special raiding team was formed to make raids according to the inputs provided by the PLFI arrested leaders,” said Mishra.

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PLFI is in a fratricidal war with its CPI-Maoists in  at least 14 districts in Jharkhand and three districts of Odisha for area dominance.