ROURKELA: The murder of a villager, Patras Purty, in the Maoist-infested interior Topadihi village, located at the extreme end of Sundargarh district under K Balang police limits, fanned rumours of Maoist involvement. Rourkela police, however, clarified that the murder took place over monetary disputes and had nothing to do with the Maoist outfit. No sooner the incident came to light on Friday forenoon the rumour-mill started working putting the police in an uncomfortable position. Purty, in his 40s, was a native of the remote Topadihi village in Bonai sub-division and was married at Bonai’s Champajharan. At Champajharan he had borrowed some money but failed to repay. Five persons on Thursday night visited him and demanded the money during which they picked up a fierce quarrel and Purty was beaten to death. The body was being brought to K Balang police station on Friday evening for autopsy. Rourkela SP Himanshu Lal said the accused have been identified and a manhunt launched to nab them. Meanwhile, villagers informed that a group of Maoists were spotted near Topadihi which is close to the Maoist hotbed of Saranda forest in adjacent Jharkhand. After a massive ‘area domination operation’ by security forces of Odisha and Jharkhand in Saranda movements of Maoist guerrillas dropped drastically. Rourkela police said combing operations by personnel of State Police, CRPF and District Voluntary Force are continuing to deny any room to the insurgents. In the past five days two Maoists were arrested from forest locations.
Comments
0 comment