Odisha, AP lock horns on Maoist
The Odisha and AP police are at loggerheads over the surrender and arrest of a top Maoist. Making a mockery of the AP government’s Naxal surrender policy, the Odisha police is booking cases against top Maoist Azad, alias Dunna Keshava Rao, who had surrendered to the AP police and was also given a cheque of Rs 10 lakh by the government.
Keshava Rao’s mother D. Kamulamma and Palasa MLA J. Jagannayakulu, met AP home minister P. Sabita Indra Reddy on Friday and complained against the Odisha police, stating that Keshava who surrendered to the AP police in May 2012, was arrested by the Odisha police and five cases were booked against him. Once a Naxal surrenders, the police is not to arrest him for old cases and he must be rehabilitated. “We have submitted the letters given by the AP police, stating that he had surrendered. But the Odisha cops are not listening,” Ms Kamulamma said.
The family hails from the Nallamoddu village of Mandasa mandal in Srikakulam district. She said that her son had staged a hunger strike in jail and was hospitalised in August. Keshava has now been shifted to jail, “and they are filing more cases.” Advocate Parameswar said they feared that more cases would be added. “Odisha should respect AP’s Naxal policy. Even the Odisha human rights panel has objected,” he said. Odisha police says that Keshava had been charged in the murder of seer Laxmananda Saraswati and his followers in Kandhamal in 2008. He is also named in the Nayagarh attack on 10 cops in 2008 and in the raid on R. Udayagir.
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